


Chloe King has a Destiny

by jenwin23



Category: The Nine Lives of Chloe King
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Destiny, Expanded Mythology, F/M, Gen, Original Character(s), Slow Burn, light Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 20:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 50,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4318338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenwin23/pseuds/jenwin23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe King died on her 16th birthday.  But it was also the day her life really began.  Discovering she was different, not human, shifted her reality on its head and left her dizzy with confusion, and then there were the two boys who wanted to be part of her new life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

#  _  
Chapter 1_

#  _Three months earlier…_

Valentina, the leader of the San Francisco Pride and Jasmine’s mother, entered the living room of her luxury high-rise apartment in downtown San Francisco on a chilly February evening, introducing herself to Chloe. She apologized for everything Chloe has been through, and told her to come with her to talk. “I just wish we were able to find you sooner. But you were born in such dark times. So many Mai were scattered and lost.”

Chloe wondered at the Mai who’d come before her. Descended from the Egyptian goddess Bastet.  Part human, part god, hunted for centuries for a reason Chloe was still wholly in the dark about. “Why do they want to kill me? Us?” Chloe asked with both fear and determination in her voice.

“Ignorance. Fear. A feud that goes back thousands of years. The mistaken belief that Mai are a danger to the human race,” Valentina explained, not really explaining at all. 

“We’ve been waiting for you for a very long time,” Valentina said, her certainty that Chloe was the long awaited Uniter undeniable.  “Nine lives to live...”

“Nine lives to endure,” Chloe recited with some morbid humor. “It kind of sticks with ya.”

“Nine lives to accomplish much, but each more complicated than the last and each death more painful than the one before.  I'm sorry Chloe, but your life is no longer your own,” Valentina said with the wisdom of centuries in her voice. “This is all our fight Chloe, you might have eight lives left, but each one is more precious than all of ours combined.”

“I don’t know if I can be what you want me to be,” Chloe said, unsure of her role. “I know I kinda died and came back, but maybe I wasn’t really dead, I mean Mai heal fast,” Chloe said desperately, her voice rising in a squeak.  “Maybe I’m just super speedy… with the healing.”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything than I am that you are the Uniter.  Chloe, we knew you’d been born.  We just didn’t know who or where you were.  We’ve been looking.”

“How?” Chloe asked, this being the first she’d heard of it.

“The curse was lifted,” Valentina said simply.

“The curse? The thing about Mai and humans not being able to kiss or… never mind.  Kissing is enough,” Chloe blushed.

“Yes,” the Mai leader confirmed with a smile, suddenly reminded that while Chloe was the Uniter, she was also a teenager girl.  “The curse that made intimacy between humans and Mai impossible was lifted when you were born. You who are meant to unite our race and lift us from these dark times.”

“But Alek and Jasmine said…”

“We kept it a secret, the Mai elders and leaders.  If too many people knew then the Order might find out you’d been born and hunt for you more actively than they had been.”

“But…”

“You kissed a boy and he died,” the Mai leader said, revealing her knowledge of events even in her absence. “You thought it was your fault. It was the Order, Chloe, we checked with the medical examiner. He was poisoned.  The Order killed that boy, not you.  No human will die because of an accidental contact with Mai anymore. Because of you.  You are the Uniter, Chloe.”

==-Nine Lives-==

#  _Present day…_

Chloe woke up  in the Train Museum to find three people standing over her, staring at her with astonished awe. She tensed, feeling a deep pain radiating from her chest outward making her whole body ache and every breath torture.  She didn’t sense any danger from them, and they looked vaguely familiar.  “Are you…”

“Mai. We are Mai.  Your guards,” one of them, a tall man with shoulder length dark hair, golden skin and dark almond shaped eyes said, his voice soothing. 

“What… happened?” she asked sitting up slowly. 

“You died.” The words of the female Mai guard fell heavily, like rocks, her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her clothes chosen for function over fashion. 

“I kinda thought that,” Chloe rasped, wrapping an arm around her chest as her memories rushed back.

#  _Earlier that night…_

Chloe had come to the Train Museum alone to find her father, but instead she’d found several people, she had to assume they were members of the Order, waiting for her.  They’d fought and she’d won, but it had been a tough fight and left Chloe flustered. How had they known about the books she’d written with her father before he’d disappeared?  Why lay a trap if they knew who she was?  Why not just come after her directly?

She’d been descending the staircase to leave when a vaguely familiar pale woman with red hair had stepped out and shot her three times.  The woman had known her name. Known that Chloe might come back to life. 

Chloe had felt each impact, felt herself falling, growing colder, dying.  Even knowing she would come back, she’d pictured her loved ones in her mind.  Her mom and dad. Amy and Paul. Alek and Brian.  She’d faced her regrets, her doubts, her fears and finally her own emotions and her course had become clear as her life drained out of her in a pool of dark red blood. 

#  _Present day…_

 “Are you still in pain? Hurt? We don’t know actually how much you heal…” the woman said, curious but cautious.

“I heal completely, but it takes awhile. A few hours,” Chloe recalled from her fall from Coit Tower.

“Do you need to see the Mai healers?”

“No. I’m fine, I think. What happened to the…?”

Chloe’s mind settled on two undeniable facts. The Order knew who she was, and they were coming after her.

“The members of the Order who attacked you are dead. They knew who you were and would have kept coming after you.  We need to find all of them and eliminate the threat,” the third guard stated plainly, his hair was died electric blue, has pale skin stretched over a muscled physique. 

Chloe gasped, struggling to stand up, feeling at a disadvantage sitting on the floor as they towered over her.  “I don’t want that. The killing… it’s enough. It needs to end.” She wanted to ask about the red-headed woman, but didn’t not really want to know if another person, a person she could put a face to, was dead, because of her.

“They will keep trying to kill you, they will kill you until you don’t have any more lives,” he said in disbelief, narrowing his blue eyes which were set in a wide face.  He was huge, tall with broad shoulders and mounds of muscles: a warrior through and through.

“Yes,” Chloe agreed simply, causing all three guards to gape at her.  “That is my destiny as the Uniter.  To live and die. To learn and bring peace.”

“To the Mai,” the beefy guard said sternly.

“To all the races, including humans,” Chloe said, her voice ringing with certainty.  The Mai guards shared a cautious, doubting look, but didn’t try to correct her.

#  _Previously…_

Jasmine looked at Chloe, her dark eyes serious, pained.  “Mai have been hunted and killed for thousands of years. Sometimes it's hard not to hate the ones who hate you.”

==-Nine Lives-==

#  _Present day…_

Chloe returned home, slipping up the stairs silently, not ready to face her mother. Her Mai guards were waiting outside, but they wouldn’t wait long. 

After being shot by the red-headed woman, who had used Chloe’s long missing father to lure her in, Chloe knew she couldn’t ignore the danger anymore and go about her life like there wasn’t a whole group of people dedicated to killing her as many times as it took for her to stay dead.  The Order was bad enough, and then there were the other races, other god/human hybrids who had a long and unhappy history with the Mai. 

They’d gone after Paul, they’d beaten Alek bloody, Jasmine had been stabbed.  It wasn’t just Chloe in danger, it was everyone around her, and her actions, her inaction was putting them all in continual danger. 

Packing a army green duffle bag quickly, Chloe grabbed her laptop and mp3 player and with one last mournful look around her room, she went downstairs.  She was leaving.  Not forever, but for long enough to adjust her mind to what her life was going to be from now on. Her life as a Mai. Her lives as the Uniter. Nine lives to live, two down, seven to go.

If she believed she was the Uniter, and she did, she was destined to live and die seven more times.  Each more painful than the last. She could accept that.  As long as the people she loved were safe. As long as her destiny didn’t mean their deaths. 

“Mom? Are you home?” she called out.  Her mother appeared from the den and Chloe forced back her tears.  “Mom, we need to talk.” Her mother had asked her not to lie before, knowing that something was up with Chloe after her 16th birthday, but Chloe had maintained the lie, kept her mother in the dark.  Now was the time for the truth. 

#  _Previously…_

“Since your birthday, you've been acting like a very different person,” Meredith said in exasperated suspicion.

“It's called growing up. Really, mom, no drugs, I promise.”

#  _Present day…_

Ten minutes later Meredith was staring at Chloe as if she might be in need of a psychiatrist.  “It’s all true, look,” Chloe insisted, extending her claws.  Meredith jumped back in fright, then slumped down on the couch as the truth sank in.

“I know this is a lot, and I know this isn’t what you signed up for when you adopted me, but I love you and I hope you can accept me for who I really am, but-“

“Of course I love you, and I can… accept this, I just need a minute,” Meredith insisted.

“You can have more than a minute. I have to go.”

“At this time of night? I don’t think so,” Meredith countered in her mom voice. “We need to talk and I-“

“I can’t stay, Mom. Have you been listening? I’m in danger. You’re in danger as long as I’m here. I have to go and figure some of this out.  Just for a few weeks, I need some time…”

“No, Chloe,” Meredith said, grabbing Chloe’s hand in a hard grip.

Chloe burst to her feet, blond curls flying. She pulled open her jacket revealing her bloody and torn shirt. “I died tonight, Mom. I died. I was shot three times by an assassin. It wasn’t the first time I died either.  I’m not just Mai, I’m special. I’m… I have a destiny. And you don’t have to like it, I don’t like it, but it’s true.  And I have to leave.  For a few weeks,” Chloe cried.  “I wanted to tell you.  I’ll be OK, and I’ll come back.  This isn’t goodbye.”

#  _Previously…_

“What would you do if I just didn’t come home one day?” Chloe asked, sitting at the kitchen island after coming in late from meeting Valentina for the first time.

Meredith rounded on her in shock.  “Oh my God, Chloe. Why would you even ask me that? That has to be a mother’s worst nightmare.”

#  _Present  day…_

Chloe listened as Meredith begged her not to go, not to leave, saying that they could protect Chloe at home.

“I’ve already lost two lives Mom.” Chloe said gently.  “One on my 16th birthday and one tonight. I have to go. I need to come to grips with what my life is now and I need to be somewhere safe to do that,” Chloe paused, looking at her mother, both their faces contorted with grief.  “And that is not here.”

“This is your home,” Meredith insisted.

“I love you Mom, and I’m not leaving forever, I just need awhile.  I’ll be in touch,” Chloe said, her words trembling with emotion, tears filling her eyes again. 

Meredith watched as Chloe moved towards the door. “Chloe, wait!”

“Mom, I can’t, this is too hard, please….”

“I have something to show you.  Something you should know,” Meredith insisted. “Let me show you, then you can go if you need to.” Chloe waited impatiently as her mom went upstairs.

Returning, Meredith showed Chloe her adoption papers and the article about the girl found alive in the rubble of a building, where all the other residents were killed in an unexplained fire.“I died before,” Chloe said blankly.

“I think your father knew who… what you are.  I think he tried to hide you from whoever wants to hurt you,” Meredith said, the words hollow as if saying them after hiding the truth for so long was painful. 

“We moved Chloe, after he brought you home. We moved and changed our names.  I never knew why, but he insisted, and I was scared enough to agree, after he left I wondered. But I’d lost my chance to ask.”

“What was our name?”

“Sullivan. I had dinner last night with someone who knew your father.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but after dinner I remembered seeing Whitley with your father once before we moved.”

Chloe grabbed her mother’s shoulders firmly. “Stay away from him Mom, I don’t know who all the members of the Order are, but you can’t be too careful.”

“The Order?” Meredith questioned, her voice rising with emotion.

“It’s… the group who want to kill me,” Chloe said with a grimace as if she were telling her mom she’d broken a favorite lamp, not that an ancient group of assassins were trying to kill her. “Who did you have dinner with… Whitley who?”

“Rezza. Whitley Rezza.”

#  _Previously…_

While Chloe had coffee with Brian for the first time they’d exchanged numbers.  “OK,” Chloe said with a smile, holding her cell phone in her hand.  “Got it,” she said, punching in his number. “Brian…”

“Rezza. Nice to meet you Chloe King.”

==-Nine Lives-==

#  _Present  day…_

Chloe left her house with tears in her eyes and a dark suspicion clouding her mind.  Whitley Rezza was Brian’s father. Whitley had sought out her mother, had known Chloe’s father.  And the woman who had killed Chloe earlier that night, Chloe knew now where she had seen the woman before.  At the fundraiser Brian had taken her to.  There was a connection between Brian and the woman who had shot Chloe in cold blood. 

Driving her new SUV over to Valentina’s penthouse, Chloe tried to gather her emotions.  Parking on the street, she checked that her jacket was all the way buttoned, covering the evidence of her latest death.  She should have changed her shirt, but she’d been in a hurry.  She wanted to just tell Valentina what had happened then get out of town.  She’d have to lose her Mai guards, but she knew the city well and thought she could do it.  Her Mai guards had followed to their leader’s home and parked on the street farther down. 

Taking the elevator upstairs, Chloe steeled her nerves to face Alek, who was a more tumultuous adversary currently than even the awe inspiring Valentina.  As soon as Chloe exited the elevator on the 18th floor she knew something was wrong.

Her empathy still didn’t seem to work on Mai, but there was a dark vibe that was impossible to ignore.  Rushing to the door she pushed it open.  Bursting into what Chloe had always thought was a safe place, she found chaos.   

Alek was rising to his feet over an unconscious Zane, both battered and bruised.  Jasmine and Valentina were on the floor not moving, Jasmine bleeding from a stomach wound.  “Alek…” Chloe cried out, rushing to him, eyes racing over him, cataloguing his injuries. 

Alek looked at her, his expression tortured.  “Get some rope,” he croaked. 

“What… Where is the rope?” Chloe asked trying to come to grips with current events.

“The hall closet.”

Chloe did as he asked and they tied Zane’s hands behind him then hog tied his feet as well.  Chloe moved to Jasmine, putting pressure on her stomach wound, earning a whimper of pain.  Alek checked Valentina as he called for help.

Within minutes the apartment was swarming with Mai.  Alek and Chloe were pushed aside as a tall stocky blonde man took charge.  Chloe stayed close to Alek’s side, cupping her hands around his arm and tugging him to one of the couches.  “Let me clean you up,” she said softly.

Alek didn’t reply his dark gaze taking in everything around him.  Chloe squeezed his arm, then left him to get a warm, wet wash cloth. 

An hour later, it was determined that Jasmine would recover with the Mai healers’ help, but Valentina needed to be taken to a hospital.  They had transfused her blood in the apartment in an effort to purge the unknown poison from her system, but she remained unconscious and needed round the clock care.  The Mai healers weren’t able to run the kind of tests that that hospitals had access to.  “Where are you taking her?” Alek demanded.

“SF General,” one of the Mai healers replied.  “I’m a doctor there, I can keep charge of her care.”

“I’m going with you,” Alek demanded.

“Not until you tell us exactly what happened here,” the blonde Mai in charge said harshly.

“I don’t know what happened, Curt,” Alek spit out.  “I came home to find Valentina on the ground and Jasmine bleeding to death.  Zane was here, he as good as admitted he’d done it. We fought, I won.  Feel free to question him when he wakes up since I went through pains not to kill him.  But I am going with Valentina, now,” he said aggressively, his tone brokering no argument. His gaze landed on Chloe.  “Chloe… will you stay with Jasmine?”

“I’ll stay,” Chloe agreed, seeing that Alek was at the end of his rope, temporarily abandoning her plans to flee the city for awhile. 

Alek nodded choppily. “Call me if… if anything changes.” He moved towards her, standing close to her. Chloe looked up at him, her eyes wounded. The night’s events had left her emotionally shattered, as well as down another life, not that she’d shared that fact with Alek yet.  He wrapped his arms around her and Chloe felt her heart stutter.  She hesitated a moment then hugged him back.  Her stomach fluttered then flipped over as he spoke in her ear, his lips brushing the sensitive flesh.  “Stay here with Jasmine, if anything happens, call me.  Be careful who you trust,” he said so softly that only she could hear him then he was gone, leaving her standing alone in a room full of Mai that she didn’t know and wasn’t sure she could trust.

==-Nine Lives-==

Chloe sat with Jasmine in the dark haired girl’s bedroom, her relief swelling as she focused on the sound of her friend’s heartbeat, which was steady and strong.  A little over an hour later, Jasmine’s eyes fluttered open.  “Chloe?” she rasped. 

“I’m here, you’re OK,” Chloe reassured.

“Zane…” the usually strong and stoic Mai said weakly.

“We got him. Alek got him,” Chloe said, hoping to ease her new friend’s fears.

“My mom?” Jasmine asked weakly.

Chloe’s mouth tightened and her eyes filled with tears. Jasmine gasped, expecting the worst. “She’s alive… but unconscious. They took her to the hospital.”

Jasmine started to cry silent tears, Chloe sitting quietly by her side, holding her hand. Jasmine’s eyes grew heavy but she squeezed Chloe’s hand hard. “Can you go… see how she is? I need… to know,” the dark haired girl said.

“OK, of course,” Chloe agreed.

Leaving Jasmine’s room, Chloe found the main room still crowded with Mai. 

Chloe listened to the terse conversation for a few minutes then walked towards the door. “Where do you think you’re going?” a loud voice rang out.

Chloe turned to see that the conversation had stopped and everyone was staring at her. “I’m going to see Valentina, Jasmine asked-“

“You’re not going anywhere,” Curt said bossily.

“I am. I’m going to check on Valentina for her daughter,” Chloe said slowly, trying to keep her tone neutral.

“You’re the Uniter, you have to be protected, and since we can’t trust you to do what’s best for yourself, we will do what’s best for you,” Curt said, nodding to two other Mai who moved to flank Chloe.

#  _Previously…_

Jasmine looked at Chloe with worried eyes. Chloe had recently escaped a close call, another attempt on her life, this time by two members of the Mai Pride from Brazil.  They’d been disappointed with Chloe as the Uniter and had wanted to kill her to see if she’d come back to life, as proof she really was the Uniter. 

“Chloe, you have to understand. Whoever controls the Uniter controls the fate of the Mai.”

Chloe’s expression was determined. “No one controls me.”

#  _Present day…_

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Chloe said, her voice trembling lightly with anger and fear.

 “I can and I am,” Curt said. “Take her to the safe house.  Make sure she stays put.” Chloe gasped as the two Mai on either side of her grabbed her arms and pulled her towards the door. 

==-Nine Lives-==

Chloe looked around the room she was in.  It was large, comfortable, well decorated, and a prison. Locked in a gilded cage, she thought to herself.  She was under guard in another high rise luxury condo with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatrez.

Valentina had mentioned the prospect of needing to take Chloe away and hide her, but Chloe had never really considered it a possibility.  She was free. Free to make her own choices. With that thought in mind, Chloe opened all the curtains and blinds and saw a ledge below the window. 

Using her claws, she cut a section of the window before easing herself out the hole she’d made.  Outside it was windy, and with the narrow ledge her only support Chloe wondered if she’d just made a fatal error, 20 stories above ground.  Even a cat couldn’t fall endlessly and expect to land, unhurt, on its feet.  Catching sight of the solid wall outcropping just a few feet away, Chloe took a deep breath and made her way to it.  Digging her claws into the concrete building façade, she climbed up to the top of the building, four floors up, 60 long feet to freedom. 

#  _Previously…_

Chloe chased an unknown figure dressed in black across her neighbor’s rooftops, ending up on the ledge of the neighborhood market a few blocks from her house.  She’d looked around, trying to find the person who’d been watching her, but as she heard a noise behind her and spun around she lost her footing.

Alek grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to safety, she tumbled into his arms, pushing away from him quickly.  “Alek… I…”

“I could have killed you,” he said, his eyes sincere.  “Do you really want to die again?” He stepped closer to her, forcing her to tilt her head back to continue to hold his gaze.  “Don’t be so careless with your lives.”

That was the first time Chloe had realized that the Mai, Alek in particular, were watching over her.

#  _Present day…_

After ripping open the locked door access to the stairwell, Chloe ran down the stairs to the street level at full Mai speed, slipping into the first alley she came to. 

Sticking to the shadows and rooftops as she made her way back to Valentina’s and where she’d parked her new car.  Stopping in an alley just over 15 feet from her car, Chloe looked around warily for Mai and members of the Order, considering both to be a danger to her currently. 

Darting out of the alley, Chloe unlocked her car and slipped inside her SUV as quickly as possible.  Checking to make sure her bag was still in the backseat, she started the engine and headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge, but after only a few blocks she turned the car around and drove to the hospital where Valentina was being kept. 

==-Nine Lives-==

At SF General, Chloe slipped past the human and Mai security by dressing as a candy stripper and walking behind groups of nurses and hospital staff and visitors.   Listening for the sound of Alek’s heartbeat, and following the faint scent of him, Chloe made her way to Valentina’s room.  She didn’t question how she knew it was his heartbeat, ever since the day he’d trained her to control her super-hearing by blocking out everything but his heartbeat, she’d been able to isolate it if she was within a few hundred yards of him. 

#  _Previously…_

Alek came up behind Chloe in the school hallway when she’d been listening in with her Mai-hearing on the gossip. “Turn around.” She spun around, dropping her books, to find Alek standing directly behind her. “Having fun?” he asked, no smile on his handsome angular face.

“I swear I’m going to tie a bell around your neck,” Chloe said, her heart racing. Alek bent down to help her pick up her books. “Stop sneaking up on me.”

Alek followed her to her locker, a habit he’d taken up since she’d transitioned to being Mai.  “The hearing is there to alert you to danger,” he said dryly.

“Meaning you?” she’d said defensively, still uncomfortable with his attention.  Alek had an intensity that made her nerves flutter uncontrollably.  She didn’t wait for his response.  “I wouldn’t know, it’s just noise, I can’t really control it,” she said with a hint of frustration.

“We’ll have to work on that. And no, not me. Killers, executioners, the assorted non-human predator. You’re not safe just because you stopped one man,” Alek said with barely restrained intensity, referring the Valentina’s killing of the Rogue Mai who had hunted Chloe at the behest of the Order, but only after the Rogue had killed Chloe before she’d even known she was Mai. “You have to learn to control your gifts, it might be the difference between life and for you… losing another.”

“Is this your long winded, slightly frightening, way of saying I have training again tonight?” Chloe said in dissatisfaction.

Later, Alek took her to the Embarcadero and the newly opened farmer’s market, an area teaming with people and sounds.  “Close your eyes,” he commanded, earning a rebellious look.  “Just do what I tell you.”

“Highly suspicious,” she countered, making him smirk at her. 

“Don’t be.”  He told her to focus, but the cacophony of sounds had been too much.  Patiently encouraging her to focus on her own breathing, the sounds had started to fall away.  He said that only he and she mattered, then he had her focus in on particular sounds: the clock, a woman haggling with a vendor, and finally his heartbeat. 

The look they shared when she succeeded had set a hundred butterflies loose in her stomach, making her feel closer to him than she ever had and more uncertain about her feelings for him than ever before.

“Did that work?”

“Yeah,” she said, her mind stumbling to understand how Alek could be so different from one moment to the next. “Um, it, uh, it worked, thanks,” she said, not able to hold his gaze. His eyes held a warmth and a seriousness that she wasn’t prepared for.

#  _Present day…_

The white hospital room was silent except for the steady beeping of the heart monitor.  Alek sat silently his head hanging low, hands folded.  “How is she?” Chloe asked softly. Alek didn’t bother to answer or turn his head to look at her. “Alek? I’m so sorry,” she said. “Sorry for everything.  All this started because of me.  If I’d-“

“This isn’t your fault,” Alek said crisply, none of the warmth she’d come to expect from him when they were alone showing.  “You’re not a burden, you’re the Uniter.  The Order have been killing us for centuries.  This didn’t start because of you,” Alek said with burning intensity. “My parents… my whole fam-“ he cut off his face creasing with confusion. 

“Alek?  Did something happen? Something else I mean?”

“You mean more than finding out I never had a chance with you and Valentina and Jasmine almost being killed by my… by Zane?” Alek said with sharp accusation.

Chloe looked down, hurt and regret thickening her throat.  “I’m sor-“

“Don’t say it. I never want to talk about it again.  It’s better that I know now,” he cut her off.

“Alek, I don’t think you understood what-“

“No, I said I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Chloe swallowed hard, fighting back the words she wanted to say, the explanation she wanted to give.  It wasn’t as bad as Alek thought, but Chloe knew that her indecisiveness between Alek and Brian had hurt him.  She had to own that.  She was drawn to both boys.  One was easy, the other was not.  One wanted her help, the other wanted to protect her. Both apparently wanted her love.  They knew what they each wanted from her, but Chloe didn’t know what she wanted. 

And now she knew Brian’s father was connected to hers somehow, maybe even was in the Order.  She wanted to deny that their friendship had been anything other than genuine, but she had to be cautious.  She had to protect herself, her friends and family. She had to be the Uniter. It wasn’t a choice, and with that came responsibility. 

Alek relayed that Valentina was in a coma, the drug Zane had given her shutting down her system, but the doctors thought they had flushed the worst of it out, and now they just had to wait. 

“I’m glad she’s alive, I hope… I hope she recovers fully,” Chloe said, turning to leave, but Alek moved quickly and stopped her with a hand circling her arm.

“Where are you going?” he demanded. Chloe stared up at him blankly.  “That sounded like a goodbye. Where are you going?”

“I’m leaving San Francisco for awhile,” she said.

“Did Curt order that?” Alek questioned, dark eyes drilling into hers. Chloe looked down and he shook her lightly, his hands curled in unbreakable holds on her shoulders “Answer me.”

“No, he locked me in a room,” Chloe said defiantly.  “I’m leaving on my own, to figure stuff out.  I’ll be gone a few weeks at most,” she tried to underplay her absence.

Alek stared at her in disappointed disbelief.  “He locked… you can’t go alone. You can't keep putting yourself at risk, I thought you’d finally realized that. It's stupid and irresponsible.”

Chloe pressed her lips together, not happy about being reprimanded, her hand tightening on her jacket, covering the evidence of her latest “stupid” foray.  “I’m going. This is what I need and I don’t need your permission. I don’t need anyone’s permission.”

Alek scowled at her but grabbed his jacket, shrugging it on and ushering her out the door. “What are you doing?” she asked in confusion.

“Going with you.”

“But you should be with Valentina and Jasmine,” Chloe stated the obvious, walking beside him as he moved down the hall at a brisk clip.

“Going with you is what Valentina would have wanted.” Alek said with a rough timber in his voice, the emotional and physical toll of the previous day making themselves known.

“No-“

“Whether you like it or not, you need me.  Or another Mai, and I, for one, am not sure who to trust right now,” Alek said with a confused look at back towards his adoptive mother’s room. “So you’re stuck with me.”

Chloe’s feet stopped moving and Alek looked at her impatiently. “What does that-“

“Never mind, it’s not like you care, so there’s no need to pretend,” he said, tugging her into a room just as two Mai entered the hall about 30 feet from them.  Chloe stepped back from him, her face paling, her look of hurt speaking her pain and regret. “You love who you love, right?  No need to feel guilty about it. I’m over it already,” he said carelessly, his emotions masked, but she knew him well enough to know it was all an act.

For a long time he’d confused her. His confidence bordering on arrogance, his sarcasm making it difficult for her to see the real Alek.  But he’d revealed his softer side to her enough times now for her to know it was real, that he hid his sensitive and caring side behind glossy haughtiness and crisp one-liners tossed out in a British accent.

Chloe flashed to the night before. Returning home from a daylong outing with Brian.

#  _Previously that night…_

Chloe was talking to her mom, Meredith trying to give Chloe good advice about her love life. Chloe had just returned from a day out with Brian, visiting his grandmother.  “You like him don’t you?”

“I do,” Chloe said, but her voice was uncertain.

Meredith frowned. “I don’t see what the problem is, because I’m pretty sure he likes you too.”  Seeing Chloe’s face pinch into a look of pained uncertainty, Meredith sat down.  “Dating is confusing, especially when two boys like you, I get that. You have to be honest about your feelings, kiddo.”

Tears made Chloe’s eyes glisten.  “I like Brian, things are so easy with him. We talk, we laugh, it’s…”

“Easy?”

“Nice,” Chloe corrected. “It’s nice and it’s comfortable, and he wants my help. He talks to me, but I…

“Is this about Alek?” Meredith guessed. 

“I like Brian, but I don’t know, and then there’s Alek, and he’s so…” Chloe made a face that told the story of frustration and bewilderment.  “When I’m with him, I feel… so much, but… It’s not easy. He’s hard to get to know, and I know he cares about me, but even when he’s saying it, he’s still holding something back.  And… and there is some stuff you don’t know about.”

“OK, for the moment, I’m going to let that go,” Meredith nodded, looking at her daughter protectively.  “I know you say you’re confused, but Chloe, I know you, and I know you know how you feel. Be honest with yourself, then be honest with them," Meredith advised. “I don’t know Alek very well, and as much as I appreciate him helping us when we needed it, if he is holding back from you, and Brian makes you happy, then I don’t see why you’re confused.  I think you know exactly how you feel.  Let yourself be happy, and if Brian makes you happy, then so be it.”

“Brian does make me happy,” Chloe said softly. 

“You love who you love," Meredith stated.

Meredith left for her meeting with the new interested investor, and Chloe went upstairs to her room only to find Alek waiting.  Chloe pulled up short her face vulnerable and worried as she looked at Alek’s wounded expression.

“Alek…”

"You love who you love,” Alek said, his voice steady, eyes dark pools of disappointment and pain.

“No-“

“Guess I never really stood a chance, did I?" the hurt boy said.

Chloe’s mouth opened to deny it, to tell him how she felt, but her feelings were still so unsettled.  She knew she was attracted to him.  He was handsome, strong, popular, he protected her, challenged her, annoyed her.  But he couched every compliment and statement about his feelings in a web of words that left her unsure of what his real interest in her was.  She knew he wasn’t the shallow playboy he pretended to be, but she wasn’t sure how far his interest in her went.  And Chloe wasn’t ready to say she liked him, not when she didn’t know where she stood with him, or how she really felt about Brian. 

“I was afraid I was making a fool of myself,” he said.

“Alek…” Chloe murmured, her voice begging for his understanding.

“Sometimes I hate being right,” he said in resignation.

“It’s not the way it sounded,” she tried to explain.

“Oh really?” he said with some aggression. “Because it sounded like you are in love with him.”

“I don’t know what I feel.  I’m sorry… but I shouldn’t be with him anyway. My life is too complicated, too dangerous for anyone new to come into it now.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? You’re worried about his safety, so you can’t be with him?  I don’t want you to choose me because I’m your only option.” Alek walked to the window, intent on leaving.  "You're making a huge mistake."

Chloe’s phone beeped, notifying her of a text message and in her momentary distraction Alek disappeared out the window.  The text was from her dad, telling her it was time to meet at the Train Museum on Fulton.

Chloe left her house, not bothering to tell her mom where she was going.  Running to a main street, she flagged down a cab, unaware of the three shadows that followed her. 

#  _Previously that night…._

At Valentina’s condo, Valentina was chatting with Zane who had shown up saying he was supposed to meet Jasmine there.  “The more I get to know Chloe, the more I realize that there really is something different about her. Something special,” Valentina said as they sat and drank tea while waiting for Jasmine.

“Yeah?” Zane said with obvious speculation.  “You have more faith than I do,” he said, and something in his voice sounded wrong to  Valentina.  When she moved to the kitchen to refill the tea pot, her shot her with a poisonous dart. "I've imagined this day for most of my life," Zane taunted her as she fell to the ground, her body failing her. "The poison works fast, but not too fast. It’s a paralytic agent.  It won’t kill you. Yet.  You'll stay alive long enough to watch your daughter die."

Valentina lay motionless, eyes wide open with despair, on the floor.

==-Nine Lives-==

#  _Present day…_

 “If we’re going we should go, other Mai will be here soon and we won’t be able to slip past all of them,” Alek said motioning for Chloe to move down the hospital hallway.

“We could wait, see if-“

“What did I just say? If you want to go we have to go now,” he said impatiently.

So they did.  Slipping out the hospital, then out of the city.  “Where are we going?” Alek asked as Chloe eased into the sparse late night city traffic, the roads wet with a dense layer of the habitual fog that often blanketed the city.

“North, I think.” 

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 6304


	2. Chapter 2

#  _Chapter 2  
Leaving Home…_

Chloe and Alek drove up the 101, heading north, no more specific destination in mind.  Taking a narrow winding road to the coast a few hours north of the city, they wound their way to the coast, stopping on a pullout to sleep the car for a few hours before dawn. 

Taking turns they continued north, connecting back to the 101 before cutting across to the 5 as they crossed into Oregon. 

Renting a room at a small roadside hotel outside Portland, they showered and slept, stuffing their faces with the large breakfast portions at a nearby diner.  Alek had withdrawn several thousand dollars from an ATM before leaving the hospital, funding their road trip and allowing them to stay off the radar of anyone tracking them electronically. 

Chloe didn’t ask how he had access to that kind of cash, assuming that it was a result of the antiquities business that Valentina operated with several other Mai to fund their high end lifestyle and Mai activities.

#  _Three days later…_

They stopped outside of Aberdeen, Washington, spending another night in another tiny, dingy hotel.  Both were sick of being trapped in the car, confined spaces and Mai not a good mix. 

They stopped after every few hours of driving to run through the forest or on an empty beach to alleviate their restless energy. Mai were clearly not meant to sit still for long lengths of time.   Leaving the small city and heading north again, Chloe knew they needed to find a place to stop or change directions. If they went much further they’d cross into Canada, and a border checkpoint was not something Chloe wanted to risk. 

“Most of the other races are believed to have died out, but considering that all of them, including Mai, tried to lay low for the last few centuries, no one knows for sure,” he said answering her question about the other races. He had to hand it to her, she’d been dedicated to learning Mai history, trying to find the truth in the lore and her place in it. 

The silence between them those first few hours out of the city had grown awkward, but with neither willing or able to effectively address the issues between and against them, then she’d asked about the Mai.  Alek had told her as much as he could, but even he had questions about what had happened to turn humans against the Mai all those centuries ago.

“Stop here.”

“Here?” Alek questioned taking his eyes off the road for a moment, currently taking a shift behind the wheel.

“Anywhere. The forest is beautiful, and I need to move,” she said after a few hours of driving.

Alek grinned, pulling off onto a small logging road before parking where their SUV couldn’t be seen from the main road.  Chloe had been embracing her Mai side since leaving the city, and with that came the increased energy and need to roam freely.  The forest reminded him of the wooded areas outside of San Francisco, at times nostalgic, and at others monotonous.   

Locking the car Chloe shot him a grin and took off running.  They’d only been racing under the forest canopy, leaping over fallen trees, for a few minutes when he caught the unwelcome scent.

“Chloe,” he called but she just smiled and darted away from him as he reached out to try to grab her. “Stop!”

Something in his voice alerted her to danger and she reached out with her senses, feeling uncertainty, anger, and fear.  “Alek,” she cried out, running back towards him, colliding with his chest as he wrapped a protective arm around her, his other raised defensively, his eyes searching the forest around them for danger.

“Jackals,” he hissed and she moved out of his arms, pressing her back against his, taking up a fighting stance, instinctively moving so they had each other’s backs.

“I sensed at least three of them, but I’m not sure they want to hurt us,” Chloe said quietly.

“That depends on what you’re doing here,” a male voice boomed from the shadows. 

“Show yourself,” Alek called out.

A very large man stepped into a shaft of light.  He was nearly 6 foot 6 inches, with dark curling hair tied back in a low ponytail.  “Are you kitties lost, or looking for a fight, ‘cause I think you may have bitten off more than you can chew,” the man said humor thick in his voice. 

“We don’t want to fight,” Chloe said, turning as two more Jackals appeared, flanking them.  

“Then you came to the wrong spot, pussy cat,” one of the Jackals taunted.

Alek turned them, facing the larger Jackal, hoping that if they attacked he’d take the hardest opponent, leaving Chloe with a better chance of escaping. “If you see an opening, run,” he commanded.

“That’s sweet, even the bloodthirsty Mai fall in love,” the large Jackal laughed, making Alek bristle as his claws extended.

The third one stepped closer and Alek turned again, not sensing an eminent attack from the large one who seemed to find them amusing.   “What are your names?” the third Jackal, standing closest to them asked.

“Does it matter? It’s not like we’re going to engrave headstones for them,” the second one taunted. But the question had drawn the attention of the large Jackal.

“What are you thinking, Eric?” he questioned stepping closer. 

“She looks… just like Kai said the-“

“Kai? Is he here? Is he OK?” Chloe asked, her defensive stance relaxing slightly. She took a step away from Alek but he twisted, pulling her back into his side, keeping her close.

#  _Previously…_

Chloe had met Kai, a Jackal, in the vintage clothing store she worked in.  She’d thought he was a regular, homeless boy, and she’d felt his fear. It was also the first time she’d heard of the other races, and the Mai’s prejudice against the other races.  Chloe had wanted to help him, but it had gone beyond that. She’d felt the need to help him.  Alek hadn’t understood it at all.

After Chloe had agreed to help Kai, and enlisted Valentina’s support, she’d hidden Kai in her attic.  Alek had shown up in her room, uninvited once again, wanting to check in on her and talk.  “I don’t get it, why do you care? Why is he so important to you?” he wondered, his emotions laid bare for once.

“You said that watching out for me was your job,” she tried to explain. “Well, I have one too. I’m the Uniter, and I think it’s time I started doing just that. This is what I’m supposed to do.” Alek seemed to understand, and he took a beating for her when it turned out Kai had been part of a Jackal trap to lure Chloe in and kill her. 

#  Present day…

 “You know Kai? Then you must be…” the large one said.

“Chloe. And this is Alek,” Chloe introduced, as Alek tensed, waiting for the fight to start.  But it didn’t.

“Fall back, Mike,” the large Jackal commanded the aggressive one.

“Mai come into our territory and we’re going to do nothing?  What the hell, Joe?” Mike complained.

“She’s the Uniter. Isn’t that right?” Joe asked. “But you seem surprised to see us. You didn’t come here looking for us?”

“No,” Chloe said, relaxing further.  “I’m kind of… looking for myself,” she admitted.

The large Jackal, Joe, laughed, the sound of it echoing off the trees.  “The Uniter, the one who’s supposed to unite us all, can’t even figure herself out.”  He smiled, coming closer to them, raising his hands to show he meant no harm. “Though by the look of you, you’re just a kid.” He stopped, considering them for a long tense moment. “You’re in no danger from us.  Not as long as you behave yourselves,” he said, approaching and holding out his hand to Alek.  “Joe,” he offered, introducing himself.

Alek held his ground, his arm still around Chloe not sure if she would act with reasonable fear and suspicion or if she would just shake the huge Jackal’s hand and ask him over for dinner.  “Chloe,” she said, elbowing the other Mai. “And this is Alek, my… friend.”

“Your protector,” Joe corrected her, shaking her hand, then holding his hand out to Alek with a steady patience that spoke of a calm maturity. “You have my word, though I suppose the word of a Jackal might not mean much to a Mai.”

Alek glanced at Chloe, seeing her nod, knowing she could feel whatever the Jackal was feeling, and since she looked relaxed, he let his arm fall, holding it out to the Jackal reluctantly. “Alek.”

“Nice to meet you, Alek,” Joe smiled, his teeth gleaming whitely in a tan, ruggedly handsome face. “So, if you kids are open for some inter-species interaction, hang out for awhile. We have an encampment… nearby.  If you were to stay in the little town about 10 miles up the interstate we might meet up at the local restaurant and bar in town tonight.”

“No thanks,” Alek replied, but Chloe spoke at the same time.

“Sounds good!”

Joe glanced from one blonde Mai to the other, grinning.  “Well, I’ll leave you two kids to work that out. I’ll see you tonight… or not, your call. But you have my word that you are in no danger from any of my people.”

“As long as we behave,” Alek said dryly.

“Exactly,” Joe agreed with another broad smile.

==-Nine Lives-==

“No, absolutely not,” Alek said heatedly as she parked at the single small hotel available in the town the Jackal leader had mentioned..

“Why not? Did they attack us? Threaten us? No,” she argued, turning off the engine.

“Yes. Or did you not hear the bit about our headstones, or lack thereof,” he countered.

“This is what I’m supposed to do,” Chloe said, her whole being speaking to her determination.  “I’m the Uniter, if I can’t even meet with the other races then how am I supposed to unite them?”

“Have I told you that the things you _are_ certain about just bother me?” he said, alluding to her inability or unwillingness to make a decision between him and Brian.

“No, I don’t think you’ve mentioned that,” she said lightly. “We’ll be in public. Surrounded by people,” she tried to sell him on the idea.

“Yeah, humans, really making me feel better here,” Alek groused.

Chloe hesitated, then reached out and touched his arm.  They’d maintained their distance in the first few days of their trip, but after they’d been threatened, or at least felt threatened, that artificial wall had come down. “I need to do this Alek. I wasn’t looking for this opportunity right now, but that is what this is. An opportunity.  Please-“

“If you’re going, I’m going,” he said, looking away from her. 

==-Nine Lives-==

That night went better than Alek had hoped. About a dozen Jackals decided to come check out the Uniter, and Chloe managed to win most of them over with her earnest charm and blind innocence, at least enough that they didn’t want to kill the visiting Mai.

Chloe was mid-conversation with Joe, the Jackals de facto leader, when she broke off and looked towards the door.  Two men in sheriff’s uniforms had entered the bar. Alek left the game of darts he’d been engaged in with two teenage Jackals, and moved to Chloe’s side protectively. He didn’t have her empathy, but he did have a keen radar for when her moods switched and when she was afraid.

“Stay cool, kitty cat,” Joe instructed, sitting back in the wooden booth, nodding to the older deputy.

“He’s suspicious of you,” Chloe said softly, moving to make room for Alek beside her in the booth, blocking the deputy’s view of her.

“Yep, he sure is,” Joe said quietly, projecting relaxation, but Chloe could sense his tension.  “Saw something once, just a glimpse really, but it was enough.  Folks here were happy enough with us moving in at first, then more and more came, suddenly we were on the radar instead of under it.  Might be time to move on.”

“Where would you go?” Chloe asked.  Alek could hear the real concern in her voice, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, squeezing her lightly.

“Don’t know. Most of us have never stayed anywhere long. I grew up a gypsy, like most Jackals, moving from town to town, con to con,” Joe said, eyes moving over Alek’s possessive hold with amusement. “Never had roots anywhere. We’re not like you Mai, who have found a way to live, prosper, in the human world.”

“That sounds… lonely,” Chloe offered sadly, feeling his emotional pangs.

“It was that. Finally I decided to make an honest life. Took up a trade.  We’re an artists’ colony as far as the locals are concerned.  I make sculptures out of metal.  Others are potters, wood workers, painters. We even have a few writers and poets.”

“Sounds like a fun place to be,” Chloe smiled.

“For as long as it lasts,” Joe said sadly. “It’s been seven years. Longest I’ve ever been anywhere. I’ll miss it.”

“Maybe it doesn’t have to end,” Chloe said hopefully.

“The land we live on is leased, our lease ends this year, and the old guy who owns it wants to put it up for sale while prices are high.”

“Could you buy it?”

He nodded but still looked sad. “You said it, that deputy has a bee in his bonnet about us, he won’t stop looking. We’ll slip up eventually.  No, it’s time to move on. “Chloe bit her lip. “You want to invite us on down to San Francisco, don’t you? Man, those Uniter instincts must make your… friend… crazy,” Joe said with a sly look at Alek.

“You have no idea,” Alek said in quick agreement.

“I was born to unite the races. It would be easier if I had an ally, someone close to where I live to help with that,” Chloe said reasonably.

“Well, ain’t that something,” Joe said, kicking back in his seat and taking a long pull on his beer.  “A cute little blonde teenager is going to save us all and wants the help of a Jackal.  End thousands of years of strife.  It ain’t going to be easy, sweetheart,” Joe said seriously, the endearment causing Alek to tense.

“No, it won’t be easy, but that’s why I have six more lives to achieve it.”

#  _Previously…_

Chloe really hadn’t wanted to tell Alek that she had lost another life, but neither did she want another lie between them. She fretted over what to tell him, how to say it and never came up with an answer. 

When they finally pulled over and parked in a pullout overlooking the ocean in a lonely stretch of road, she turned her head to look at him in the dark.  “We can put down the back, lie down,” she said, happy that her SUV was big enough to allow some level of comfort.  Alek didn’t reply but he climbed out from behind the wheel, stretching his legs.  The eastern horizon was just beginning to lighten, dawn would be on them within a few hours. 

Both were tired, the events back in the city and the hours of driving, exhausting them. Luckily Chloe kept a few blankets in the back for days when she, Paul and Amy went to the coast where the wind and wet air were chilling even on sunny days.

Chloe struggled to put the back seat down, while Alek studied the perimeter for any threats.  When the seat wouldn’t go down immediately she murmured her frustration quietly, drawing Alek’s attention.  He nudged her out of the way and within seconds the seat was down.

“Show off,” she grumbled, making him smile despite his fatigue.

Chloe crawled in, and Alek’s eyes focused on her curvy hips and butt before he realized and averted his eyes. 

Once they were both inside, lying on the cold, thinly carpeted SUV floor, Chloe shivered and tugged the blanket tighter around her.  She’d given the other to Alek, who was lying with almost a foot between them.  He was on his back, his long legs bent, the space not long enough for him to stretch out his full 6 foot 2 inch frame.  Chloe rolled onto her side facing him, her legs only slightly bent to fit. 

“Alek,” she said softly, but he didn’t reply.  “Are you asleep?”

“Hard to sleep if you won’t stop talking,” he said briskly.

She swallowed and rolled onto her other side.  “Sorry.”

Several more minutes passed and she thought he had fallen asleep since his breathing and heart rate were both even and slow. Tears burnt her eyes and she pressed her face into her bent arm, which was positioned under her head like a pillow.  Her chest shook as she tried to contain the tears, the long night finally catching up with her. 

Her dad was likely dead. The Order knew who she was.  She’d been killed. Killed again.  She had managed to hurt Alek again on the night that he almost lost his adoptive mother and sister. The new Mai pride leader had ordered Chloe locked up, and Chloe had fled from her home.

After several minutes, Alek’s voice startled her, making her wipe away the evidence of her tears. “Chloe…” he said, and she could hear the reluctance and frustration in his voice. “You’re tired, just… try to sleep. You’ll feel better.  We will both feel better after we get some shuteye.”

“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” she whispered. 

“You didn’t.”

“Alek… Can I… I need to tell you-“

“Just sleep Chloe, I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he said shortly.

“I died tonight. Again. I-“ she managed to push the words past the lump in her throat. 

She let out a startled squeak when his heavy hand landed on her shoulder, pulling her onto her back so he could see her face.

“Say that again,” he commanded, looming over her in the darkness. 

She swallowed hard. “I… I went to find my dad, but he wasn’t… it was another trap.  I was shot,” she said her voice trembling. “Three times.”

He was breathing hard, his face twisted with anger, but he forced himself to withdraw, so he wasn’t in her personal space.  “Are you hurt? Hurting now?” She shook her head. “We’ll talk about this in the morning, for now, just get some sleep.” She smiled sadly, nodding, and positioned herself more comfortably on her back, wishing that she could at least reach out and rest her hand on his arm, but Alek had already moved back to his side of the vehicle, keeping the wide buffer of empty space between them. 

#  _Present day…_

“Five,” Joe corrected. “You need that last one to actually live unless you plan on being a martyr to the cause.” 

Alek turned to look at Chloe, wanting to read her face for her response.  What he saw made him grit his teeth. “Five lives, then _I_ will lock you up in a tower somewhere,” Alek threatened, not allowing himself to dwell on the reality of her dying five more times.

“I don’t have a death wish, I promise, Alek,” she reassured him softly, her hand going to his forearm, squeezing it lightly.  She suddenly realized his arm was still around her, but she didn’t try to move away. 

“Then you’ll say no when this guy invites us back to his little Jackal paradise,” Alek gritted out, his tone hard, but his expression soft, already knowing she would leap at the opportunity to extend their interaction with the Jackals.

“There’d be no safer place for you right now than with us,” Joe said, hinting that he knew more than he’d admitted about their presence so far from home. “You have my promise of no harm coming to you from my people, and no one in their right mind would look for a Mai in a Jackal camp,” Joe said with a wiry smile.

==-Nine Lives-==

#  _The next day…_

Chloe and Alek followed two of the Jackal’s that had come to escort them to their encampment. “This is a bad idea,” Alek cautioned, seeing the Jackal’s vehicle pull off the main road.  “Last chance to be reasonable.”

“When have you ever known me to do what you considered reasonable?” Chloe said lightly. His lips compressed as she took the turn, pulling onto the dirt and gravel road.  “I thought you had fun, even if you didn’t exactly make friends, last night.”

“It wasn’t horrible. Surprisingly,” he said grudgingly, making her smile.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted. “But I know we can trust Joe. And I need to do this.  But Alek… you don’t have to-“

“Don’t say it. I’m with you.  All the way.  You’re not going in there without me. You’re not going anywhere without me,” he said harshly.

“I don’t… I want you with me. I… but Alek, I don’t want you to risk your life for me. Not again.”

#  Previously…

After Alek got himself nearly beaten to death trying to protect Chloe from the Jackals that had come to seek her out and kill her, they emerged from the darkness of the warehouse into the bright sunlight, and Chloe had turned to see the full damage Alek had sustained.  His face was liberally smeared with blood, already bruising, his lip and eyebrow split, and he was walking gingerly, his ribs and the rest of his body battered and bruised.

“Are you all right?” she asked, knowing that he wasn’t, knowing that he would deny it.

“I’ll be fine.”

“That… was… stupid,” she said, facing him, feeling guilty. “And amazing. Why’d you do that?” she asked.  Chloe knew she would put herself in danger for her loved ones, but why Alek would put himself in such a bad situation, deliberately, for her left her mind spinning.

He held her gaze, his brown eyes teaming with emotion. “If anything had happened to you… if you had…” he said haltingly. “I couldn’t live with myself.”

She felt her heart clench, her whole being on pause for a moment.  Alek continually surprised her with moments of honesty and sweetness.  Unsure of what to say, or even what she felt, besides gratitude, Chloe had stepped into his side, wrapping his arm over her shoulders to support him for the walk back to their vehicles.

#  Present day…

“I know that Valentina said that my lives are more valuable than... than… other Mai, but… your life is important to me.”

“Too late to back out now,” he said, ignoring her words, as the trees began to thin and a large, open field came into view,.

Joe met them, several of the other Jackals hanging back, either from caution, or to let the Mai teenagers get comfortable. “Welcome.”

Joe gave them a quick tour, ending at a cabin, positioned on the edge of the field, trees surrounding it on three sides, providing a modicum of separation from the rest of the camp. “This is our only unoccupied cabin, I thought Chloe could stay here. It has a small bath.  Totally utilitarian, I’m sure you’re used to better,” he warned them.

“It will be fine. Thank you for your hospitality,” Chloe said without any pretension.

“And Alek, you can stay with me.”

“I stay with Chloe,” Alek said with a challenging look at the large Jackal.

“If that’s what she wants, it’s fine by me,” Joe said easily, looking to Chloe whose cheeks turned a pale shade of pink.  “Chloe?”

“I’d prefer if Alek stayed with me,” she said softly, looking at her feet. “I’m sure you understand.”

Joe smiled. “I think I understand more than you think,” he said, his gaze going from the shy blush on the girl’s cheeks to the protective boy’s quickly shuttered vulnerability. 

They had just finished exploring the small cabin and putting away their clothes (Alek’s bought at a quick stop at a mall in Eureka) and toiletries when a hesitant knock sounded on the door.

Alek looked at Chloe and motioned her to stay back as he moved to the door. She rolled her eyes and came closer to him, but stayed behind him as he pulled the door open to find Kai standing on the short set of three stairs. “It really is you,” the young Jackal breathed.

“And it’s you. Great,” Alek said sourly.

“Kai, I had hoped we’d see you,” Chloe said happily stepping past her protector and outside. 

==-Nine Lives-==

That night they ate with a large group of Jackals around a bonfire, and even Alek appeared to have relaxed his guard.  Chloe looked over at him and smiled softly.  Alek was sitting with who she had to guess were the ‘cool’ Jackals.  If they were in school, they’d be the popular kids.

“Why don’t you tell him how you feel?” a young female Jackal questioned. 

Chloe turned her head startled to have been caught looking at Alek, her emotions apparently on display.  The girl who had spoken appeared to be in her early 20s, with dark hair and pale skin.  Chloe opened her mouth to deny feeling anything, but then closed her mouth and admitted the truth. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” the girl questioned. “He obviously cares for you.”

“It’s complicated. I hurt him,” she admitted softly.

“Then apologize and tell him how you feel.”

“It’s not that easy,” Chloe said, her mouth tight. “He doesn’t want to hear it. Not anymore.”

The girl regarded Chloe curiously. “I was in love once.” She smiled reminiscently, then her face clouded. “He was killed before I could tell him how I felt.”

Chloe swallowed hard, her eyes going to Alek. Their lives were dangerous, it was undeniable.  “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” the girl said, though the words did little to ease the ache. “I heard you like to run,” she said, changing the subject. Chloe smiled and nodded. “Several of us go for a run every morning at dawn, if you’d like to join us. Alek too.” She stood and turned to walk away, but Chloe stopped her.

“Wait, what’s your name?”

“Kiera. We leave out from the center of camp at a quarter to six.”

“Thanks, and nice to meet you Kiera.”

Kiera nodded and walked away, pausing with her face in shadows as she walked outside the range of the fire light.  “It wasn’t Mai, if you’re wondering. It was humans, the Order, who killed my… who killed him.  They don’t hunt us like they do Mai, but they kill us just the same if they come across us. I don’t see how you’re going to stop the killing, stop the hate, but I hope you do.”

“I do too,” Chloe murmured softly.

==-Nine Lives-==

Chloe and Alek stayed in the camp for several days.  They ran each morning with the Jackals, then trained every afternoon for several hours.  Their third day there, Kai, Keira and a few other Jackals offered to train with them. “You’ve done well, training Chloe to fight, to survive, but you have only taught her the Mai style of fighting. She could benefit from training with us,” Keira offered, her expression serious.

“We both could,” Chloe said, looking to Alek for his acceptance. It was a lot different to fight a Jackal, and it took Chloe longer than it took Alek to learn to counter the Jackals’ strengths and style. 

Once they’d trained on a few moves, learning how Jackals moved in a fight, Alek sparred with Kai, while Chloe and Kiera circled each other then attacked.  After Alek defeated the young Jackal and Chloe and Kiera came to a draw, neither willing to land a real hit, the Jackals left the young Mai to their own devices while they returned to work.  The camp ran communally, so beyond whatever art or job they did, the Jackals also contributed towards cooking, cleaning, and maintenance.   

“When she kicked you should have countered with a low sweep, taking out her other leg,” Alek instructed.  When Chloe looked confused, he took up a fighting stance. “Kick me,” he ordered, smirking. “Or try to.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes and attacked.  She spun to the side and tried to kick him, not the same kick Kiera had delivered, but a side kick aimed at his ribs. Alek dodged easily and twisted around his foot landing in her back pushing her forward and almost onto her knees.

Chloe spun around, keeping him in her eye line. Fighting Alek, hand to hand, was never really a fair fight. He was eight inches taller than her, stronger, had years more training, the only thing the evened the odds a little bit was that her Mai powers seemed to come with an extra Uniter punch.  They continued to circle each other, kicking, punching and dodging until Chloe went for a kick similar to the one that had started their current sparring session. 

While her leg was high, missing Alek as he moved to the side, he dropped to his haunches, sweeping out a leg and pulling her supporting leg out from under her, making her fall back and hit the ground hard.

“Ooof,” she grunted as the air rushed out of her lungs.

Before she could even take in a breath, Alek was over her, holding her to the ground with his weight. “That is what I meant,” he said smugly. 

She scowled at him, hating losing, hating that it usually either brought out his censure or cockiness. She raised her hands, punching his arm, and pushing at his chest, making his smile deepen at the ineffectiveness of her hits.  When she extended her claws he captured her wrists quickly, pinning them to the ground above her head.

“Temper, temper,” he laughed, but his smile fell quickly as her anger faded to awareness, their position suddenly seeming more intimate than instructive.  Her eyes darkened, and her mouth parted, drawing his gaze.  She felt his hands clench on her wrists, and her stomach flipped over in a seemingly endless series of somersaults as she recalled their first kiss.

#  _Previously…_

Alek had shown up at her home after the fight with the Jackals.  Chloe answered the door to see him standing at the bottom of the steps.  She descended to him quickly, his silence and dark expression worrying her.

“Alek? What’s wrong?” she asked uncertainly. “Are you OK?” She searched his face, still feeling guilty that he’d been hurt saving her from a trap that she’d led them into.

“We belong together,” he said, after giving her a long look, causing her to blink owlishly at him as his hand curled around her waist and he stepped closer, his mouth descending until their lips met.

Chloe stood still, shocked at first that he’d actually made a move, his words echoing in her mind, the importance and finality of them making her heart race uncomfortably.  Then the fact that he was kissing her and she was letting him, hit home. She drew back a bit, looking at him with shocked eyes, and he met her gaze, his certainty shining from his chocolaty brown orbs. 

Still unsure of where it would lead, where she wanted it to lead, she knew one thing for sure: they had chemistry. Her eyes fell to his mouth, her mind still racing with the possibilities, good and bad, but her thoughts didn’t stop her from focusing on his mouth again, or from stepping forward, her hand curving around his neck as she kissed him. 

They’d stood there, focused only on each other, neither considering who could be watching, from her mother to her Mai guards, until Brian had interrupted. Her careless, floundering words afterwards had send both boys running from her, hurt, and left Chloe crying on the rooftops as she tried to sort herself out.

#  _Present day…_

Her mind focused on the memory of how soft his lips were,  softer than she’d expected, but he was obviously an experienced kisser, knowing just how much pressure and how to tease her with his tongue. Her body burned with the memory, and longing that he would kiss her again.

Her chest moved up and down rapidly as her heart beat faster and her lungs struggled to get enough air as anticipation tightened around her like a belt.  The moment seemed to stretch on forever as her gaze fell to his mouth, her tongue darting out to wet her own, suddenly parched, lips. “Alek…” she said uncertainly.

The sound of her voice seemed to break the spell they were both under and he released her hands pushing off the ground and clear of her body, his movements jerky.

“Alek,” she said again, her voice pleading, but even if she knew what she wanted from him now, he wasn’t interested in hearing it.

“That’s enough for today,” he said shortly, tension thick in his voice.

Chloe sat up, watching him walk away, regret and longing clear on her face.

==-Nine Lives-==

That night, Chloe was sitting on the double bed they’d managed to share for several nights without touching, due to Alek’s insistence that she sleep in a sleeping bag, since if they were attacked he’d need to be able to move quickly, and getting free from blankets was easier than the zippered bag. 

Alek entered the cabin and sat down on the other side of the bed, closest to the door, untying his boots, not speaking to Chloe.  His head jerked to the side as her phone beeped, the sound indicating a text message.  He saw the smile on her face as she read the message and typed in a quick reply. 

His shoulders tense, he dropped his shoes to the ground nosily, standing to move to the bathroom where he washed his hands and brushed his teeth with quick efficiency. Looking at himself in the mirror he brushed his hair back from his face. “How long do you want to stay here?” he called out.

Chloe looked up from another message, her expression thoughtful. “I don’t know. A few more days?  We’re safe here.”

Alek frowned.  “I suppose. I just thought you might want to head home soon.”

Chloe searched his face as he exited the bathroom.  Alek had come with her to protect her, no questions asked, leaving his adopted family in a time of crisis.

“We can head back, if you want, I know-“

“No need to rush back on my account,” he said quickly, making her frown.  Something had happened the night that they had left San Francisco, something that made him question the Mai, question Valentina, but Alek wasn’t sharing. 

“You know you can talk to me, right?”

“Nothing to talk about,” he said pithily. 

Chloe ground her teeth in frustration. If he didn’t want to talk she couldn’t force him. She’d learned that already.

#  _Previously…_

“Hey. Your cheek looks better,” she said, approaching him in the school hall the day after he’d been hurt protecting her from the Jackals, then came to her house and kissed her until Brian showed up and Chloe had managed to hurt both Alek and Brian in her rambling effort to explain. “Does it hurt?”

“It’s OK, though it’s amazing how many girls find a little bruising sexy.” He looked away from her to send a flirtatious look at a passing girl.

“Can we just talk about last night, please?”

“I’m listening,” he said, but his eyes were focused away from her.

“I mean talk. As in both of us saying something.”

“I thought I made my feelings very clear,” he said, rising from his perch by a wide set of windows. “And I think you made yours as well, so… end of conversation as far as I’m concerned.”

“Don’t be like that, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said following him down the hall as he walked away from her.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said cuttingly.

“Alek,” she called sharply, and he turned around, albeit reluctantly.  “Obviously, I care about you, but last night, it’s just this is all so new and everything is happening so fast, and-“

“And you’re still not quite over your human,” he interrupted, his voice scathing. She’d objected to his hinting that him risking his life should earn him points with her, and she’d refused to choose between Alek and Brian, leaving him to declare that they had nothing to talk about, just as he’d said. 

#  _Present day…_

“Turn your back if you don’t want a show,” he advised, pulling his shirt over his head and slipping on a warm soft long sleeved shirt that he used to sleep in.  When he unfastened his pants she turned her back, her cheeks flushed. 

When her phone sounded again, he turned to look at her briefly, then pulled back the covers and slipped inside.  “If you’re going to play with your phone, put it on silent, I’ve had a long day.”

Chloe frowned, but did as he asked, quickly typing in one last text to Jasmine, before sending a mass text to her mom, Amy and Paul, as she had every night since she’d left. “I’m safe.  Love and miss you. XO”

Alek punched his pillow into shape before rolling onto his side, away from her, imagining what kind of drivel she was writing to her human. 

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 6210


	3. Chapter 3

#  _Chapter 3_

#  _At the Jackal Encampment…_

The next day, Chloe drug herself out of bed, layering on a flannel shirt and sweatshirt over tshirt and yoga pants for their morning run.  Alek was already ready, doing pushups, his eyes bright and awake. Chloe really wasn’t a morning person, and didn’t really like when anyone who was happened to be in her space. 

She stumbled to the bathroom to brush her teeth, then out the door, Alek hot on her heels.  Outside, Chloe stopped suddenly causing Alek to crash into her back.  She lurched forward down the stairs and only his grip on her hips kept her on her feet. “What’s wrong?” he asked, looking around warily.

“I don’t know… the Jackals are all on edge.”

Kiera ran towards them, ushering them into the center of the field, which was full of Jackals, more than three times the amount that usually ran with them. 

“What’s that smell?” Alek asked, keeping his hand firmly at Chloe’s back, not letting her get more than a foot from him.

“You can smell it, too?” Kiera asked, flanking Chloe’s other side.  “We’re not sure, Joe said it could be a-“

“Falcon,” Joe, the large leader of the Jackal enclave, said.

“But not literally, right?” Chloe said nervously, her mind flashing to images from the movie _Stargate_ that Paul had forced her to watch after learning about her true heritage.  “The descendants of Horus look human, just like we all do, right?” she questioned, stumbling over her words, the idea of facing a... person with a falcon’s head or a gigantic bird unnerving her. 

“They look human alright. Took exception to us settling here at first.  They have a relatively good sized population around Seattle,” Joe said, which was news to Alek if the way his eyebrows skyrocketed was an indication.

“We thought there were only scattered Falcons left.  And those few were in England and the area around the Great Lakes,” Alek said quietly.

“Nope, plenty of them around. You Mai tend to stay in your cities, so it’s easy enough for the other races to stay off your radar. Jackals, we wander, probably have a lot better idea of where Chloe should be looking, if she’s looking,” Joe corrected the young Mai male.

“What’s he waiting for?” Chloe asked as a hush fell over the group, her whispered words still loud enough for all the assembled Jackals to hear.

“Watching, listening, gauging the situation,” Joe said, his gaze searching the trees. “Been here since bed down last night. Stayed downwind, so I almost missed him.”

Chloe went over what she knew about Falcons quickly.  Decedents of Horus, god of the sky, sun and moon, and sometimes war. He was also commonly known as Ra.  On paper their abilities were similar to the Mai: improved night vision, hypersensitive hearing, increased dexterity and agility and razor talons. She swallowed hard.  “But just one of them... right?” she gulped.  “And they don’t fly, so he can’t swoop down here and pluck me up like an owl would a bunny, right?”

“No flying. They’re as earth bound as you and I,” Joe reassured. “Don’t worry, he’d be crazy to come in here to pick a fight, since he’d have to go through us as well as Alek to get to you.”

Chloe looked around, realizing for the first time that the Jackals had formed concentric circles around her, leaving her, Alek and Joe in the middle, protected. Her eyes went to Alek, who was also scanning the trees outside of camp.

“There,” he said quietly, nodding towards a large evergreen that would afford an unimpeded view of the camp.  “About 25 feet up.”

Joe smiled, his teeth razor sharp and gleaming.  “Gotcha.” He relaxed his stance, tilting his head, before speaking in a clear firm voice. “Come on down, meet the Uniter or get lost.” 

Several tense moments passed until they saw the figure of a tall, thin man emerge from the woods.  Chloe felt Joe’s tension scale back another notch.  “Do you know him?” she asked.

“We’re acquainted.  He’s... not bad. Bit of a jackass, but you hang with Alek so...”

Alek’s scowl deepened, even as Chloe smiled hesitantly.  Alek and Joe were both positioned about a half step in front of her, between her and the approaching Falcon.  She saw Joe flick his hand towards some of the younger Jackals and they casually wandered away, disappearing in the treeline.

“That is unnecessary, Joseph Grimaudo,” the Falcon spoke in a rich voice. “I came alone, you are not under attack.”

Joe rolled his massive shoulders, waving his hand to indicate that the Jackals between them should part, forming a path.  “If it were just me, I would trust you.”

“But you have your kin to protect, and... new friends.” The Falcon stopped several feet away.  He was tall, thin but obviously strong, with black hair and golden skin.  He resembled Valentina in appearance, except his eyes were a pale golden brown. 

“Adofo Bomani, meet Alek Petrov, Mai, and Chloe King, Uniter,” Joe made the introductions tersely. “If you wanted to meet her, you could have called.”

“I must have lost your number,” the Falcon said flatly, but his lips curled up in a half smile, his eyes warming.

Chloe’s blue gaze went from the Falcon to Joe, reading each with her empathy. Joe had relaxed, but he was ready to act.  The Falcon was jumpy, but his curiosity was nearly equal to his anxiety at being in an enemy camp alone.

Chloe lay her hand on Alek’s back, her warning that she was about to step forward. She moved to go around him, but Alek shifted in front of her, blocking her.  “If you so much as frighten her, I will end you here today, and peace be damned,” he said with lethal intent.

The Falcon’s eyes seemed to glow for a moment, then he nodded, accepting the threat as a statement of facts.  “As would be your right to defend your mate.”

Chloe’s eyebrows drew together, but she cleared her expression, forcing a smile as she stepped up beside Alek, but going no farther.  “Hi, I’m Chloe King. Nice to meet you,” she said extending her hand. 

The Falcon studied her face for a long moment, the assembled Jackals beginning to fidget, the tension getting to them, then his eyes dropped to her hand and he closed the gap between them, bowing his head slightly.  “Adofo Bomani, I came of my own accord, but I will take news of this meeting back to my people,” he said, accepting her hand and holding it lightly. 

“You hungry?” Joe asked, breaking the tension.  “’Cause I sure as hell am, you kept me up all night.”

“I would be honored to break bread with you, old friend,” Adofo said, smiling and clasping Joe’s forearm firmly in a friendly greeting.

==-Nine Lives-==

Sitting around a picnic table, Joe and Alek sat on either side of Chloe with Adofo on the opposite side, several Jackals milling around just behind him. 

“So you know Joe?” Chloe asked as the smell of eggs, bacon, potatoes and toasted bread began to fill the crisp morning air.

“Your young friends at my back are not necessary, I promise. I come in good faith, my only intent is to gauge the resolve and worth of the Uniter for myself,” Adofo said, his gaze on Chloe even as he spoke to the Jackal leader.

“As I said before, if it were just me...”

“You have given her your fealty, already? She has been here only a short time, a matter of days.”

Chloe sat back looking at Joe. She’d never really asked him if he would trust her, stand by her in the days to come, she’d accepted his invitation to stay with his group, his kin, and learn about and from them from within their midst. It had been enough.

“You seem to know an awful lot about her,” Alek said in a low tone.

“I give you my word as a Falcon and a friend. There has been trust between us for many moons now,” Adofo said to Joe. Smiling and shrugging he continued, “It would be madness for me to attack her here, even if that was my plan in coming.”

Alek tensed, both he and Joe shifting closer to Chloe, whose back went ramrod straight. “Let’s cut the posturing and drop the bit about attacking me, at least until after breakfast. I haven’t even had coffee yet,” Chloe said, her casual complaint lessening the tension. “Joe, maybe you could invite Kai to sit with us? And the others could...” she trailed off, not comfortable telling the Jackal leader what to do with his own people.

Joe nodded and the Jackals hovering around them dissipated, as Kai and Mike sat down on either side of Adofo, keeping a good foot between them and the Falcon.

“We had heard news that the Uniter had been found. Several of our kind went to San Francisco to see what there was to see and learn,” Adofo explained, answering Alek’s question.  “Our relationship with the Mai has been distant, but no animosity like that between the Mai and the Jackals has ever existed between us.”

Alek’s expression clouded at the knowledge that other races came and went from San Francisco without the Mai being any the wiser.  He’d been brought up to believe that the Mai had control of the city, at least in regards to the ancient races, but now he had to question that.

“The night the Mai leader was attacked, our people watched as you cut your way from the upper floors of the building on Chestnut,” he smiled, a dimple appearing on one cheek, as he looked at Chloe. “I believe they even had a bet as to whether you would make it to the top or if you would fall and they would be able to witness for themselves the truth of the prophesy.”

Chloe smiled awkwardly, refusing to look to her right at Alek, but feeling the burning intensity of gaze on her face. “Thanks for that,” she said in a high pitched voice. 

Joe arched one amused eyebrow, looking from Chloe to Alek to his old friend. “Adofo and I met a few years back, on top of Longs Peak.”

“Colorado is beautiful in the winter,” Adofo offered. 

“We _will_ talk about it later,” Alek hissed under his breath, turning his attention back to the Falcon. 

The conversation flowed over a series of unimportant topics for the next few minutes, and Chloe’s hand sought Alek’s under the table, squeezing to ask for forgiveness for her lie of omission, and thanks that he was still standing by her no matter the issues between them.   

After they’d eaten and most of the other Jackals had gone to work in the various artists spaces, the Falcon turned his unnerving golden gaze on Chloe. “Do you have a plan for how you will attempt to draw the ancients together as a whole?  Even in the time of our creation we did not band together.”

“I don’t know, I think I’m just learning right now, finding out who each of us are, as people and as individuals,” Chloe said honestly. So far she had just followed her instincts when it came to dealing with the other races.  “We have more in common than we have that divides us, at least it seems to me.  I’m not trying to make light of old issues, but they are old. Truly old.  Isn’t it time to let those things go? We’ve all been hunted, terrorized, forced into hiding, made to live in fear.  We’ve all lost loved ones to this war.  Shouldn’t that be enough to unite us in a common purpose?”

“Have the Mai forgiven the Jackals?” Adofo asked blandly.

#  _Previously…_

After Jasmine and Alek had chased Kia from the vintage clothing store Chloe worked at, Kai had turned to defend himself, baring his canine teeth, throwing Jasmine off of him while Alek tackled Chloe to keep her out of harm’s way.

“Okay, that was most definitely not normal,” Chloe said, referring to Kai’s teeth.  “That kid has got to get a dentist. What was that?”

“That was a Jackal,” Alek said tersely. “Jackals are easily the most filthy and disgusting race on the planet; nothing but scavengers and murderers.”

“They're also the Mais' mortal enemy.”

“Oh great,” Chloe moaned. “So in addition to the Order trying to kill me, I also have mortal enemies?”

Paul inquired about how to deal with a Jackal, wanting to know who came out on top in a Mai-Jackal fight.  Alek advised Paul to steer clear of any Jackals. “If a Jackal wants you dead, there's nothing you can do to stop it. They truly are animals.”

#  _Present day…_

Chloe knew that the Mai prejudice against the Jackals ran deep. She assumed there were other issues between the Mai and other races, and between the races independent of the Mai.  But she also knew that the Jackals she’d met were nothing like what Valentina and Alek would have had her believe.  But she still jumped at the chance to learn how the feud had began.

“For what? I don’t know why the feud began.  Getting answers as to what actually happened to start all this hatred is not easy,” Chloe said, eyebrows drawn together.

“The facts have been lost, blurred with the sands of time, but the stories remain, and in each story, a kernel of truth,” Adofo said in his philosophical way.

“And what is the story of the strife between the Mai and the Jackals?” Alek asked.

“It was a Jackal that brought about the curse that made Mai hazardous to humans,” Joe said without apology. “As the story has been told around countless campfires, a Jackal and a Mai were both in love with the same woman.  The human, a sister to the ruling pharaoh, wavered between the two until both were entrenched with the idea of having her.  She chose the Mai, but the Jackal wouldn’t let it go.”

“He went to Anubis,” Chloe murmured.

“Yep, and in requesting that the Mai be punished for taking his love, the Jackal ensured her death.  Anubis took the affront to his descendant personally and sought to punish all Mai as well as the humans who were loyal to them. Anubis and Bastet had long warred for favor among the Pharaoh’s court, and Anubis used the opportunity presented to him to show his power, cursing all Mai.”

Joe looked down, his gaze far away, focused on the past, the stories passed down from father to son, mother to daughter over thousands of years. “At least that’s the way the story goes. Overnight thousands of humans died. Their Mai spouses and lovers killing them unintentionally.  The humans rose up against the Mai, cast them out, killing hundreds, in mistaken retribution even as the Mai mourned the loss of wives, husbands, even in some cases children.”

“Thousands...” Chloe murmured. “Killed because of one man’s jealousy? A feud between Gods?”

“Hardly the first or last time that happened, kitty,” Joe said truthfully.  “But in the end the joke was on Anubis.  Jackals and the other races continued to be able to mate with humans, lessening the potency of our race, but the Mai were forced to keep to themselves, mating only with other Mai, keeping their bloodlines pure, or as pure as they could be after centuries of intermarriage with humans.”

“Not long after that the Pharaohs fell, when the people rose against the capricious nature of their leaders and gods alike, Bastet made her prophesy about the Uniter.  Looking into the distant future, she saw a time when the races could be brought together, by one of her own descendants. The Mai paid the heaviest price in the initial foray into war with the humans, but it was a Mai that was foretold to bring peace.”

Neither Chloe nor Alek reacted to the history, the inciting event behind the animus between Mai and Jackals, and the Falcon watched, reading the way the Uniter interacted with her Mai protector and the Jackal leader.  “Knowing doesn’t change how you feel about the Jackals?” he inquired.

“Why would it?” Chloe asked as if the question was ridiculous.  “It’s sad, terrible, but it happened so long ago. If I were going to hold a grudge it would be for things that have happened much more recently.”

Alek’s eyes drifted to Kai, who looked down with a flush of embarrassed shame. 

“She is the Uniter. We thought she was coming just to unite the Mai, but Chloe has been drawn to the other races, continues to maintain her human connections even after multiple attempts on her life,” Alek said quietly.  “So the question is, where do you and your kind stand?”

#  _Previously..._

“I understand. Your human friends are important to you,” Valentina said after having questioned Chloe about putting herself in danger to help her boss, Lana.

“And I’d do it again,” Chloe said stubbornly.  “You keep telling me to follow my instincts, that’s what I did. I might not always understand them, but I have to learn to trust them,” Chloe said, and Valentina nodded slightly, looking out the window to the city lights.  “I know I might not be the kind of Uniter you were hoping for, but this is the one you’ve got.”

“You’re exactly the kind that we were hoping for,” Valentina contradicted. “Maybe it’s time Mai and humans stopped living in different worlds.”

#  _Present day..._

Adofo considered Alek’s question carefully.  “I do not speak for all Falcons, but I am... open to the idea of peace and reconciliation.  How old are you?” he asked Chloe abruptly.

“Sixteen.”

He shook his head. “So young. So innocent. I wonder if you have what it takes to do what needs to be done. But with multiple lives to achieve it, I assume you will grow into the role. You have died, come back to life, that makes you unique, even among the Mai.  The Uniter, raised by humans, friend of Jackals, a wisp of a girl,” he said as if adjusting his mind to the facts that had been presented to him.  “I am curious to see how this goes. I will not stand in your way, but neither do I offer the help or support of my kind at this time.  They must decide for themselves.”

“But your recommendation, your account of her, will sway them one way or the other,” Joe said tersely.

“I will reserve judgment a bit longer, old friend,” he said before turning to Chloe. “I have a question for you, if I may.”

Chloe smiled, but was nervous. The Falcon had an old world formal politeness that was incongruous given the fact that Chloe sensed that he could be highly deadly when he choose or needed to be. “I’ll try to answer any questions you have.”

“Perhaps you have already addressed this with Joe, but I would like to hear for myself your plans for reconciliation with the humans. It is our stalwart opinion that revealing ourselves to the humans en mass would lead to our destruction.”

Chloe frowned, her gaze turning inward. She hadn’t considered that yet. She’d only had good experiences telling people, humans, about her “otherness.” But what would happen if humans who didn’t know her, didn’t care about her, found out about her, about all Mai, all the other races? Would they become lab rats, viewed as less than human? Exploited to make super humans, super soldiers, used as pawns in wars not of their making? Would they be killed, hunted, cast out?  Would their lives be better or worse than they were now?

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I’ve been accepted by humans, the ones that I have reveled myself to.” She paused, squeezing Alek’s hand under the table again. “But I know that is not the experience of many other Mai. I would not take that choice from them or you,” she said resolutely. “A decision to out ourselves to the humans would be a choice made by the many, and reserved for the race that made it. I think we can all agree to that.  We have kept each other’s secret for millennia, why change that now?”

Joe nodded, accepting her words while the Falcon continued to study her with his unnerving raptor’s eyes.  “You consider that your path is to unite us all, humans included. How do you reconcile that with what you just said?”

“I don’t... To live in peace, we must end the hostilities with the Order. The killing must end. No accounting of rights and wrongs, no list of the dead can ever be made equal. It just has to stop. If we must be the better natured of the two, then we will. At least I hope we will,” Chloe said with an uncertain look at Alek. 

“I think... I think we must have peace among ourselves, within our races and between races before we could ever face the human race and survive. As long as the old hatreds exist, as long as the killing continues, they would have every reason to fear us.  People fear the unknown, and if that unknown is stronger, faster, smarter than you, and willing to kill to avenge old grudges, I would be afraid. If I were human.”

“Which she was up until a few months ago,” Joe put in.  “Spend some time here today. See if she doesn’t convince you that she’s our best shot of ending the unnecessary violence.”

#  _Previously…_

Valentina looked at Chloe.  She was pretty, young, her life ahead of her no longer the life she’d imagined.  Valentina was glad Chloe had been found, glad that Chloe seemed to embody everything she’d hoped for in a Uniter, but she knew the girl wouldn’t have chosen the life for herself.

“Chloe, you're destined for greatness.”

Chloe frowned, the weight of the world seemingly hanging from her slender shoulders.  “Why does that sound like the worst thing that anyone has ever said to me?”

#  _Present Day…_

“You don’t believe that she can do it,” Adofo stated, his keen gaze taking in the three who sat opposite from him.

“I don’t know how anyone could do it,” Joe agreed. “But neither would I have ever thought that I’d invite two Mai into my home, until five days ago.”

Chloe still had a hard time understanding why anyone believed in her, but Valentina did. Jasmine did. Alek always had.  And now there was Joe. Keira and Kia. And maybe Adofo.  She didn’t know why, but she was grateful that they were at least willing to give her a chance to convince them that peace was possible. 

Chloe hadn’t been happy to learn she had a destiny, but she was done running from it. 

==-Nine Lives-==

“Alek,” Chloe said in a quietly questioning tone, as they finally returned to their cabin after a long day of getting to know Adofo.

“Yeah.”

“What… Joe and Adofo both mentioned the ancient races having mates,” she said causing his shoulders to tense. She studied him, looking for answers.  “They used the word mate more often than spouse or husband and wife.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, not volunteering any further information.

“Is it… what it sounds like? Do Mai take mates? And is that mate for life or hey I kinda like you, let’s see how this goes?” she said with an awkward smile.

“I don’t know for sure about the other races,” he started, taking a deep breath and turning his back on her as he sat on the bed and bent to untie his boots. “But Mai generally mate, at least with other Mai. I don’t know if we would have that same connection with humans.”

“But what’s involved… I mean is it like a marriage?”

“Yes, if divorce didn’t exist. Mating is forever. A bond is formed that is only broken by death.”

“OK, well, that’s… good to know.”

She wondered what Adofo had meant when he’d said Alek had the right to kill him if the Falcon hurt Chloe, since it was Alek’s right to protect his mate.  Alek always put himself between Chloe and danger, even when he was upset with her. He’d contemplated asking to be removed from the responsibility of being Chloe’s primary protector, but he’d never made the move.  A fact that Chloe had been very grateful for on multiple occasions.

#  _Previously…_

“I’ve been thinking about asking Valentina to take me off Uniter duty,” he said, sitting by her side on her steeply pitched roof, his thigh pressed against hers.

“Why?” she asked, her blue eyes locked on his face.

“I just don't want you to think that every time I'm here it's because someone is forcing me to be.”

“I don’t think that.”

“It’s just hard trying to do both,” he’d said lightly.

“And I guess I don’t make it very easy,” she said with some guilt and regret.

“It would be boring if you did,” he replied, trying to make her feel better about the difficulties she’d put him and other Mai through.

Chloe felt his gaze on her, but wasn’t sure if she was ready to risk the truce between them, given the fallout that they’d just managed to recover from, so she changed the subject. “Did you ever find anything else out about who was taking my picture?”

“No,” he admitted. “Not yet. We’re hoping that whoever it was, we managed to scare them off.”

“For how long?”

“Does it matter?” he asked, knowing what she refused to acknowledge: Chloe was going to be in danger for the rest of her lives. 

“Of course it matters,” she insisted, worried about her loved ones getting caught in the crossfire yet again.

Alek turned his body towards her, his eyes holding hers effortlessly. “Then just be happy, at least for this moment, that you’re safe.” He inched closer to her, closing the space between them inch by inch, giving her time to withdraw. 

“Then why don’t I feel that way?” she asked before tilting her face to his, their mouths meeting softly. 

#  _Present day…_

Later that night Chloe was trapped in a nightmare.  Unseen enemies hunted her down in the night.  She ran, ran to save her own life, ran to draw the enemy away from the people she cared about.  But no matter how far she ran, no matter how fast, they always found her.  And she always died. 

Lost in the pain and fear, she tried desperately to count how many lives she’s lost, how many she had remaining.  Until it was down to her last life and this time the killer that hunted her was the scar faced freak.  Valentina had never told Chloe what had made the Mai hunter turn on his own kind, and in the end it didn’t matter. 

He hunted Chloe down then trapped her.  He’d been about to drown her again, since he hadn’t gotten the pleasure before, when she woke up, sitting up abruptly, an aborted scream in her throat and tears coursing down her cheeks.

“Chloe!” Alek called, grasping her shoulders tightly. “Wake up! It’s just a dream.”

She looked around wildly, her lungs laboring for breath as if she really had been drowned again.  “What?  Alek?”

“You’re safe,” he said calmly, but his eyes were stormy.  “You were having a nightmare.”

She nodded, getting out of her sleeping bag with shaky hands, then heading to the bathroom.  Alek sat up, waiting her out as she splashed water on her face and tried to vanquish the last of the dream from her mind. 

Returning to bed she climbed into the sleeping bag but didn’t zip it despite the chill in the air.  She didn’t want to feel constrained by the fabric, her memory of being locked in chains fresh in her mind. 

“You should talk about it,” Alek said quietly.

“Nothing to talk about,” Chloe denied.

“How often do you have dreams like that?” he persisted.

“Go to sleep Alek.”

He frowned.  He’d been keeping her at a distance, trying to develop a shield against her or his feelings for her, so that he could protect her without any emotional baggage in the way. It hadn’t worked, but apparently it had made it so that Chloe no longer wanted to confide in him. 

“Chloe…”

“Please Alek, I’m tired.  Just… just go back to sleep.”

He was silent for a long time, and Chloe thought he might have done just that, when he spoke again. “I’m not sure how you expect me to sleep when you’re lying next to me, scared out of your mind.”

“I’m not-“

“I can hear your heartbeat.  It’s racing,” he cut her off, proving his point.  “If you don’t want to talk, I can’t make you, but… If there is anything I can do…”

He thought she was going to ignore him, but she turned onto her side facing him, her expression that of a lost little girl, not the Chloe he knew, a fighter.

“Could you talk to me… just until I fall asleep,” she asked hesitantly.

“Talk about what?”

“Anything, nothing, it doesn’t matter.  I… the sound of your voice.  You always make me feel safe.  You could recite old childhood rhymes… Twinkle twinkle little star…” she murmured.

“I don’t think we had that one in the Ukraine,” he said softly, gently laying his hand on her head, her silky reddish blonde hair shifting under his fingers.  “There was a story about a shepherd I remember my mom telling me.”

“What was it called?” Chloe asked sleepily as his hand soothed away her demons, at least or the moment.

“Little Shephard. Пастушок.” He started talking his pronunciation of the nearly forgotten words in Ukrainian growing smoother as he went.

“I didn’t know you spoke Ukrainian,” she muttered.

“Some.  Now, stop interrupting,” he said gently, running his hand down to her shoulders, trying to ease the last bit of tension she was holding there. 

His words, completely unintelligible to her, eased her into sleep, conjuring images of rolling green hills above the ocean, small bland houses lined up on a dirt and cobble street.  Her eyes fluttered shut and Alek slid down in the bed, lying on his back, his head turned so he could see her peaceful expression. 

“Goodnight, мій ангел”

==-Nine Lives-==

Chloe and Alek missed the morning run with the Jackals the next day as well, since Adofo had stayed late into the night talking and sharing some of the Falcons’ history with Chloe, then her nightmares had ruined the few hours of night remaining.

After getting up, Alek was nearly bouncing off the walls with energy waiting for Chloe to shower. They hadn’t had any physical activity the day before, the closest thing to it was watching Joe and Adofo spar so Chloe and Alek could see the way Falcons fought. 

They were both anxious to move, and had agreed to run before grabbing a late breakfast.

Later, sitting around an outdoor picnic table, Chloe pushed away her plate, picking up a plain white coffee mug and taking a drink as Alek continued to eat forkful after forkful from his heaping plate.  She had never seen someone eat as much as he did, whether it was active teenage boy or Mai male in his prime, it was a lot.

“If we stay a few more days someone else might come,” she said contemplatively. 

“Some _thing_ , you mean, and that is a good argument for us to leave.”

“Some _one_ , and I know you like Joe and maybe even Adofo,” she said lightly, refusing to be drawn into an argument. 

“Perish the thought,” Alek snarked, but Chloe smiled as he nodded at some passing Jackals.  “I will deny it if you ever bring this up again, but unless you have a place you want to go, like home, I think this is as safe a place as we’re going to get.”

“Then we stay.  Just a few more days,” she said with mixed emotions about going home.  It had been nine days since they left San Francisco, leaving their families and several problems behind.

He studied her face seeing her reluctance. “We can go east. Or keep going north.  Backtrack to SoCal,” he offered. 

“No. I promised my mom.  Two weeks max.”

==-Nine Lives-==

That afternoon Chloe and Alek were training, using long wood sticks Joe had provided from the forest around them. They circled each other, attacking and defending, neither getting the advantage for more than a few seconds. 

“You’ve improved,” he complimented. “I actually have to pay attention now.”

“Ha. Ha,” she deadpanned, pushing a curl that had escaped her ponytail off her forehead. 

“Should we switch to hand to hand?”

“I was thinking more head to pillow,” she offered with a hopeful smile, but Alek merely took the pole from her and laid them both down several yards away.  “So no nap then? What is the point of skipping this much school if I don’t get to nap when I want to?” she complained as if she were a normal teenager and not the destined savior of ancient half god-half human races. He circled her and Chloe spun to keep him in her eyeline.  “Fine, but I get first dibbs on the shower.”

He grinned and attacked, Chloe easily countering his first several forays.  But as the training session continued, she felt her strength wavering.  Alek was in better shape than her, and she would argue, more naturally athletic. 

She stepped forward to punch him in the stomach, but he caught her fist easily and spun her around so her arms were pinned, her back to his chest.  She immediately countered by bending over and tossing him over her shoulder, but Alek landed easily on his feet, her hands still trapped in his grip.  Chloe had no idea how he did what he did next but suddenly she was on the ground, Alek sitting on her, holding her down. 

“I guess I win. We need to work on your stamina,” he said, barely out of breath.

“That’s what she said,” Chloe murmured, letting her body relax, happy to not be on her feet for a moment, no matter how she’d ended up in a prone position. 

Alek’s mouth quirked up in a smile.  His eyes narrowed in thought.  Chloe pushed up to her elbows, and Alek shifted back, giving her space.  A single wavy strand of hair was stuck to her slightly sweaty cheek, and he reached out to push it behind her ear. 

“Alek,” she said, blinking up at him, feeling a bittersweet tension well up in her chest.  “I… I’m glad you’re here with me.”

He studied her for a long moment, his fingers skimming over her jaw then down her neck so softly she wasn’t even sure he knew he was doing it, but his touch set her nerve endings on alert, a trail of fire seemingly ignited in his wake.

Chloe held her breath as his gaze fell to her lips, her chest burning for oxygen as he leaned down ever so slowly until his lips brushed over hers.  Her breath whooshed out in a rush as he immediately broke the contact his unblinking gaze on her liquid blue eyes. 

Whatever he saw there must have been the answer he was looking for, because he dipped his head again, his hand cupping behind her head as his mouth pressed against hers firmly. 

Chloe fell back, flat on the ground, Alek following her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave herself over to the kiss. 

#  _Previously…_

Chloe’s first kiss with Brian had been on their second date.  They’d been at a café, talking easily as they always did.  He told her that he’d gone to school in Paris for a few years, stating that his parents wanted an ocean between him and them at all times.  Chloe demurred, but changed the subject babbling about a trip she and her mom had taken to Paris.

Seeing Brian’s blank stare, she’d broken off. “It’s really not that exciting a story.”

“No, sorry, but I didn’t hear a word you just said,” he explained, causing her to flush with embarrassment. “All I can think about is kissing you.”

Chloe felt a jolt of tension in her stomach, and then Brian was leaning across the table his mouth on hers.  The kiss had been soft. Nice, pleasant, not too short, not too long, but something about it had felt wrong to Chloe and she’d withdrawn, looking awkward.

“Sorry, I just… I must have read that all wrong,” Brian apologized.

“No, you didn’t, I’m just… I like you, I do, but maybe we can take this slow, try the friends thing first, see where we end up,” she suggested hesitantly.

He’d been disappointed, but he kept coming around, declaring that he would wait for her if she needed time. 

 

==-Nine Lives-==

 

Words 6185


	4. Chapter 4

#  _Chapter 4  
Nine days after leaving SF…_

That evening Chloe was sitting surrounded by Jackals around a campfire. Their time at the camp was coming to an end, and Alek wasn’t sure how to feel about it.  He liked several of the Jackals, even trusted them, in a limited regard, but he had been raised to hate and fear them, and he would never be truly comfortable with so many of them around.  Not when he was the only Mai with Chloe to protect her if she needed protecting. 

Alek was about to approach the group of Jackals that included some of his “friends” when his phone alerted him to an incoming call.  Pulling it out of his jeans’ pocket he saw Jasmine’s name flash on the screen. He hesitated, considering whether to answer or ignore her call like he had every other time she’d called or texted.  Realizing that their time away was limited and upon their return he might have to rely on Jasmine, whether he trusted her or not, he hit the talk button, raising the phone to his ear.

“Jasmine, how are you?”

“Annoyed as hell with you.  What the fuck Alek? You just leave and refuse to talk to me for over a week?”

“I’m with Chloe, you know the Uniter?  She needed protecting,” Alek downplayed his absence. His eyes locked on Chloe as she saw with Mike, Keira and Kai, Joe just a few steps from her.  She smiled and laughed, the firelight playing over her pale beautiful features. 

“I know,” Jasmine said in her typical heavy, matter-of-fact manner.  “Chloe told me.”

“Chloe? You’ve been talking to Chloe?”

“Texting. Apparently they’re harder to trace, or at least that’s what she thinks.  I don’t know,” Jasmine said in exasperation. “I do know you’re with her and that you guys are somehow living with a bunch of Jackals singing kumbaya around a campfire and Goddess only knows what else.”

“No singing,” Alek said shortly. 

“Why’d you leave?” Jasmine asked, her voice suddenly soft, vulnerable. “I could have used you here.”

#  _Previously…_

Alek carried an injured Jasmine home after his adoptive cousin had taken a knife in the back for Chloe, right after the younger girl had transformed.

Alek stood over Jasmine’s bedside watching her rest, her arm in a sling. His expression was one of dread. Chloe was a Mai, which he’d long suspected, but she was also the Uniter, and that meant all their lives had just gotten infinitely more dangerous.

#  _Present day…_

“Chloe-“ he started only to be cut off.

“We both know you could have convinced Chloe to stay if you really wanted to,” Jasmine accused.

Alek didn’t bother to deny it. “Maybe I thought it was best for her to get out of the city. Hard to know who to trust these days,” Alek said.

Jasmine inhaled sharply, reminded that she had trusted Zane, let him into their lives, her home, and they all know how that ended.

“I didn’t mean you, Jaz,” he said his voice soft. 

“Curt?” she guessed, letting his unspoken apology soothe her frayed nerves.

“Among others,” he said ambiguously.

She waited but he didn’t explicate.  “I guess that is all the response I’m going to get from you.  Look, I just wanted to talk to you, make sure you’re still alive and sane, I know you were having issues with Chleo before-“

“It’s fine,” he interrupted. “All patched up. How are you? All healed?”

“Yeah.  Still a little sore, I’ll need to do some serious rehab and training to regain my strength.  My mom… she’s still unconscious. They say she’s in a coma.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s my fault, Alek.  I-“

“Did nothing wrong. Zane was Mai. Is Mai. None of us suspected, including your mom and every member of the New York Pride. He fooled us all, Jaz,” Alek tried to ease her guilt. 

“That’s what Chloe said too, I just…”

“You and Chloe talk a lot?” he asked with a frown, not having heard Chloe on the phone once.

“Text, were you listening to me at all or just making googly eyes at Chloe? We text almost every night. I changed her name in my phone to Gigi, so no one suspects a thing.  Just a stupid teenage Mai girl talking to another,” Jasmine said bitterly.

“So things aren’t good with Curt?” Alek asked grimly.

“He’s an ass. I can’t believe he locked Chloe up and actually expected her to stay there like some Disney damsel in distress.  Honestly.  He doesn’t have a very high opinion of any of us as far as I can tell.  He hasn’t been able to do much, since my mom is still… well, he hasn’t been able to change how the Pride operates, but I’ve heard his plans, and…”

“And?” 

“It’s not good. He had Mai hunting for Chloe everywhere.  I told him you went home to the Ukraine to look for answers.  Paul and Amy even helped set up a false trail out of the country for you.”

==-Nine Lives-==

Two days later, after another long albeit somewhat more relaxed visit with Adofo, Chloe was walking through a tiny grocery/drug/all purpose store in the wide-spot-on-the-road town that was closest to the Jackal camp. 

“Oh! Pirate’s Booty!” she exclaimed in excitement.  “I’ve missed junk food.”

Kiera laughed. “And here I thought all Mai were snooty eaters.”

“Snooty eaters?”

“Yeah,” she teased, affecting an upper-crust accent. “Only fresh, seasonal and local organic greens in my salad.  Is that beef free range? I simply can’t stand the taste of corn fed animals.”

“Uh… no.  I think I’m pretty normal. Sugary cereal? Check. Pizza at least once a week? Yes, please.  Garlic fries on Fridays with clam chowder? Hell yes.”

Keira laughed again, taking the  bag of puffed corn from Chloe’s hand and dropping it in the cart. “Can you run out to the car? I forgot Mike’s list.”

Chloe nodded happily, and walked out the door, her strawberry blond hair bobbing up and down from its high ponytail.

Outside she opened up the door, no one locked car doors in this part of the country, and looked for the scrap of paper Mike had trust at them as they’d left camp with several other Jackals who were in town running errands at other shops.  “Got it,” she exclaimed triumphantly, turning to find a woman standing directly behind her. “Whoa! Hi, did you need something?”

“I need to talk to you. In private,” the woman said ominously.

Chloe backed up, getting some space to move in case she was suddenly attacked.  “I don’t know you,” Chloe denied.

“No, but I know you, or at least of you. Chloe King.”

Chloe kept moving backwards, sizing up her potential opponent.  The woman was only a few inches taller than Chloe, but while she was slender, her muscle tone showed through her clothes. 

“Who are you?”

“Who I am can be of little consequence to the Uniter,” the woman said.

“Who?” Chloe asked again, her voice rising.

“Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Then why are you here?” Chloe asked.

“’Cause it’s pretty dumb to come up here and try to start something,” Kiera said from behind the woman, causing her to twist quickly.  “Especially when you’re outnumbered.”

“I mean no harm, I came to talk to the Uniter. I think I have knowledge that you may be interested in.”

“I’m not too interested in what the Order has to say,” Chloe said, more confident now that she wasn’t alone. Alek was back at camp with Joe, since Chloe hadn’t told him she was leaving, which now he would find out and the fight over her continued “irresponsibility” would be inevitable. “Only what they do. The killing needs to stop. When that is a conversation you’re willing to have, I’ll be willing to listen.”

“Even if I know the truth about the Rezzas?”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed.  She did want to know. She needed to know. 

“That’s what I thought. Perhaps we could sit down, someplace public where neither of us feels at a disadvantage.”

“No way lady,” Keira denied. “Your only chance to get out of this alive is to leave now.”

“No,” Chloe said, her voice commanding as other Jackals closed in around them. “If she came in peace, she leaves in peace.  The killing, the hate and fear has to end.  It’s the only way.”

The Jackals stopped, uncertain about her command, knowing that Joe would be angry if any harm came to the Mai girl. 

==-Nine Lives-==

“I left the Order when Evelyn was killed,” the woman, who had refused to give her name for fear of her own safety, said as they sat in the back corner booth of the only restaurant in town.  The Jackals were all nearby, one on either side of Chloe and two more watching the entrance and exit. 

“Brian’s mother,” Chloe murmured.

“Whitely left the Order officially not long after me.”

Seeing Kiera’s blank look, Chloe tried to give her some context. “Brian is… a human friend. Or at least I thought he was a friend.  We met around the time I transformed. There was… an attraction.  But nothing ever really happened, it was all too complicated. The night I left home, I found out his father knew my adoptive father.  I thought, apparently correctly, that Brian or at least his dad knew about the Mai, maybe were even in the Order.”

“Let me start at the beginning. We grew up together. Evie and I. Joined our parents’ war together. Blindly.”

“I started to have doubts after the first mission I was sent on,” her face was pale, old beyond her years.  Lines of regret marked her face. “Mission,” she scoffed. “It was murder. We were sent out to murder entire families. Men, women, and children. Even babies,” she said hollowly, the dark memories clearly still fresh in her mind.

“I managed to hide my revulsion for what we, the Order, were doing. I managed to convince Olivia that I would be better able to serve in another way.”

“Olivia?” Chloe asked, frowning.  The entire time she’d been with Brian’s grandmother she’d felt like her measure was being taken, but assumed it was more a family-meets- the-kinda-girlfriend thing.  Now she realized it was more.

#  Previously…

Chloe had driven north of the city with Brian to track down his grandmother, who he had believed was dead for most of his life.  Turns out she wasn’t and after they found her house, locked up behind high walls and a gate, Chloe had jumped over, trying to make Brian’s dream come true- to find a living family member outside of his father.

“Samson! Enough! Sorry to frighten you,” an older woman with sharp features and dyed red hair exclaimed as a large frightening dog growled at Chloe, his posture aggressive.  “Seems you're unclear as to the point of the gate. It's there to keep intruders out,” Olivia said calmly.  “What do you want?”

“Grandma? It's me—Brian,” he called through the gate.  Olivia appeared shocked and happy to see her grandson, opening the gate to let him in immediately. 

“I can't believe it's really you.”

“I just wish I had known you were so close,” he said mournfully.

“Oh, I've dreamed of this moment for years,” she uttered, hugging him lightly. 

#  Present day…

“Olivia is Whitley’s mother. A cold hearted killer. She has plans for you, plans that you do _not_ want to be part of.”

“What does she want from me?” Chloe asked, dread curling in her stomach.

“She wants to use you to destroy the Mai. Then the other races, but the Mai first.”

“Why? What is this hatred about?”

“The Mai killed a powerful priest, the founder of the Order over two thousand years ago.  He was just one of thousands that died at the hands of the Mai in a single night. No remorse, no regard.  They said they loved their human families, loved and served humans at large. But they turned on us.  At least that’s what we were led to believe.”

“It’s not true,” Chloe said, recalling the story Joe told.

“No, I suppose it isn’t, but hate doesn’t need more than a spark.  Truth is not necessary.  And for the Rezzas it’s personal.  Olivia’s husband left her for a Mai. Rumor had it that he sired a child with his Mai woman.”

Chloe frowned, another instance of jealously, petty or not, bringing about the demise of thousands, tens of thousands of people over the millennia.

“Olivia Rezza rose through the ranks of the Order. She was… is… coldblooded. It’s all about the mission for her. All Mai must die. No exceptions.”

“And her son? Her grandson?”

“Whitley is just like his mother, with one exception, he was actually capable of love,” the former member of the order said bitterly.  “He loved Evelyn.  He loved her and when they became parents he changed. He didn’t want to raise his son to be a murderer. Somewhere along the line he’d come to think of what we were doing as murder.  He realized it long before I ever did.  They kept Brian away from Olivia.  Even sent him away to school in Europe.”

Chloe nodded, the story matching up with the pieces Brian knew. “What happened to Brian’s mother?”

“She was leaving a bar with Whitley, a night out after a successful mission. They were tipsy. Off their game. They didn’t stand a chance. Three Mai attacked them. Whitley was injured. Evelyn died in his arms.  He left the Order for good before she was even laid to rest, swore to Olivia that she would never see her grandson.”

“Why was he so angry at her?” Chloe asked in confusion.

“He suspected that she had known about the attack, ordered her people to watch, not help.”

“Why?” Chloe cried out in distress.

“As punishment. Whitley wasn’t the son she’d raised, not anymore. He loved Evie more than his own mother, not that any sane person could blame him.  He wasn’t her pride and joy anymore and she turned her attentions on Brian, but Whitley shut her out, refused to let her see the boy. Her guards saved Whitley’s life, but they didn’t intervene until it was too late for Evelyn.”

Chloe sat back as her mind tried to process how a mother could sit back while her son was injured, while her daughter-in-law, the mother of her only grandchild, died in the street. 

“I don’t know what Olivia’s plans are for you, but it will end with you dead, will all the Mai dead, unless you stop her. I don’t even know if running would save you.”

#  _Previously…_

Valentina looked into Chloe’s innocent blue eyes, shadowed with responsibility beyond her years. “It's not gonna be easy, Chloe. So much hope and so much fear, all in one girl. Like it or not, the whole world is coming for you.”

“Then let it come.”

#  _Present Day…_

“Why did you come?  Why are you trying to help me… or what are you doing here?” Chloe questioned.

“There are others like me. Some who have left the Order, others that are still inside.  We… I want, no I need to make up for some of that I did.  I’m not asking for forgiveness, I don’t expect that, I don’t even know if forgiveness is possible or if I deserve it,” she said past a large lump in her throat.

“Did you know my father? Was he in the Order?”

“Your father? What is his name?”

“Jonathon King… I mean Sullivan. You might have known him as Jonathon Sullivan,” Chloe said, the unfamiliar name sticking on her tongue.

The woman narrowed her eyes, looking at Chloe in shock. “The reporter? Worked for the New York Post?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You’re her.”

“I think we covered that already,” Chloe said, uncomfortable with the look of awe on the woman’s face. “I’m the Uniter, nine lives to live, nine horrible deaths to endure. I should make my own greeting cards,” she joked darkly.

“I found you… in the wreckage.  I went back at first light, I needed to see it, see what we had done…” the woman said with dark eyes, lost in the past.

“You…you were there? You were part of it… my parents…” Chloe said in horror, tears welling up in her eyes for people she would never know, never remember. 

“Yes, it was… I was part of the attack.  I killed Mai that night.  I… I would apologize, but I can’t imagine that the words, coming from me, would mean anything.  I went back the next day, just as the sun was rising.  I had to see it. I was probably just torturing myself, I wasn’t brave enough to leave the Order then,” she said with self-hatred ringing in her voice. “I found a child. A little girl in the rubble of a burned out home.  She had reddish blond hair, big blue eyes.  I can’t believe I didn’t realize it was you.  Your eyes have haunted me every day of my life.”

“What happened?” Chloe asked hoarsely. 

“I wrapped you in my coat, hustled you out of there.  I had government ID, part of our cover, I used it, took you to the hospital… but you weren’t hurt.  I should have known then.  But all I saw when I looked at you was a little girl, an orphan because of what I did.  What I allowed to happen. I knew you couldn’t’ stay there. The Mai were good at hiding their children from us, it had become part of our MO to come back search orphanages and the streets for Mai kids who got away alive,” she explained.

Keira gasped, the horror of a group of adults, actively hunting down children to kill them finally pushing her to break her silence. “You are the monsters, not us.”

“I can’t disagree with that.”

“But you saved me,” Chloe said softly.

“I…” she shook her head. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being killed.  You didn’t cry. You’d lost your parents, your home, everything you knew, and still you smiled and laughed and charmed everyone around you.”

“Western papers had started to carry stories about the genocide in Eastern Europe, Jonathon Sullivan was one of those reporters. I had come across him a few times before, given him false leads, false information.  He was a good man.    I thought I could trust him.  I gave him the story of his life, told him all about us, the Mai, the killings.  He could have written a story, won a Pulitzer, but instead he asked where you were, and managed to use his contacts to smuggle you out of the country.”

Chloe looked down, struggling with her tears.  Her father had known what she was and had loved her anyway. Loved her enough to break international law to keep her safe. 

“I created a paper trail for an Ukranian woman, a distant relative of Jonathon’s to ease the paperwork.  The adoption was completed legally in New York, then Jonathon took my advice and moved, disappeared without a trace.”

“Yeah, he’s good at that.”

“What do you mean?”

“He moved us, changed our names, which I just found out… but then he disappeared when I was six,” Chloe said hollowly, the reality that her father was probably dead finally sinking in.  “I only knew him for three years. But I loved him. I still love him.”

“I’m sorry. I never heard anything about him again,” the woman said. 

“I’m sorry too,” Chloe whispered. 

#  _Previously…_

Meredith had started to wonder if the changes she was seeing in her daughter after her 16th birthday were due to drugs and that suspicion led her to go through Chloe’s laptop and find a few messages from Chloe to her father, and replies. They’d fought over the invasion of privacy and the lie as Meredith saw it, or secret keeping as Chloe saw it. 

“I'm sorry,” Chloe said, her voice still edgy with anger.  “I should have told you.”

“How long have you and your dad been communicating?”

“A couple of months since my birthday,” Chloe admitted stiffly.  “Actually I've written him on and off for a few years. But he never wrote back.”

“Until now? My God. I can't believe this is happening,” Meredith said, her voice rising with her emotions.  “Don't you think I have a right to know your father is still alive?”

“Of course, you do. I didn't want to freak you out,” Chloe tried to explain.

“Not your call, kiddo.”

“It's just three or four stupid emails that don't make any sense,” Chloe muttered to downplay the situation.

“You were going to let me have him declared dead!”

“I was afraid if I told you that you wouldn't move on. That you'd spend all your energy trying to find him or figure out what happened,” Chloe said sadly.

“And that would be so wrong why?”

“Because he is not coming home!” Chloe exclaimed.  “He obviously doesn't want to be found. Like I said, if he wanted to see us, he would.”

#  _Present day…_

Chloe had to resign herself to the idea that her father was dead. He was gone. Whether he had left to keep them safe then lost his life, or if the Order had found and killed him ten years ago.  Either way, he was gone, and he wasn’t coming back. 

Chloe tried to remember the good times, going to the zoo, writing and telling stories, sharing an ice cream cone, cuddling on the couch for Saturday morning cartoons. She’d forgotten about the books, Hannah Hannity, but she remembered now.  He had loved her. No matter how it had ended up, he had loved her and she had loved him.

That had to be enough, because that was all she had.

==-Nine Lives-==

Back at the Jackal Camp, Alek and Joe listened with heavy silence as Chloe related the story.

“We can’t stay here. The word is out.  We’re not safe here anymore,” Alek said harshly.

“I have to agree.  Someone must have talked. One of my people,” Joe said with tightly controlled anger. “I’m sorry, I gave you my word, but apparently it isn’t worth what I thought.”

Chloe frowned, not having considered that.  “How do we leave without them just following us?” She turned to the Jackal leader. “Joe… no. Your word means everything. Even the Mai in San Francisco had issues with me, with what I believe my mission is.  You are not responsible for another person’s actions.  I knew this wouldn’t be easy.  What’s that line about winning hearts and minds?  I can’t expect everyone to welcome me the way you have.”

“We still have to go,” Alek insisted.

“I know.”

Alek sized Joe up for a long moment then nodded, apparently coming to a decision before turning back to Chloe. “You go with Kiera and Mike.  Pack our stuff. Joe and I will work out the details.”

Chloe frowned, having expected Alek to blow up at her, but apparently he was focused on his mission, which was to keep her safe. “I’m sorry I went without telling you.”

“No you’re not,” he denied. “You’re sorry you got caught. You haven’t learned anything. A few days with no one trying to kill you and you think you can just… You know what, never mind. It’s not worth fighting about when it won’t change anything.”

“Alek, I’m sorry, I…” Chloe tried again, guilt heavy in her voice.

“Just go pack,” he interrupted her impatiently. Chloe looked like she wanted to argue, but turned and walked away, her back stiff.

Joe waited until she was out of earshot. “I get it man, I do. She takes risks that she shouldn’t. Risks that you don’t like. Hell, I don’t like it and I just met her. But don’t you think you’re being a bit tough on her?”

“No,” Alek denied, his mouth a tightly seemed line, the muscle in his jaw ticking rapidly.

“Think about it from her perspective, if she didn’t fight, push to maintain some freedom, some autonomy, you’d have locked her away in some room or bank vault by now.  And, just consider this… the prophesy says she’s going to die. Nine lives.  She can either spend those lives completing her mission or running and hiding from it.” Joe looked to see that Alek’s chest was working hard his breathing quickening as his mind raced over what the future held. “And one last thing, then we can get down to practicalities… no wonder she is so confused about your relationship. Are you her protector? Her friend? Her mate? Or what? ‘Cause you just sounded like a disappointed parent, and I’m pretty sure that is not how you want her to see you.”

#  Previously…

“Don't be an idiot,” Alek said, grabbing her arm in a light hold, stopping her from going after her boss’s violent stalkery boyfriend. “If he ever comes within 10 feet of you again, I will personally rip out his lungs.”

“How about you just keep him away from Lana?” Chloe requested.

“Chloe, I know you've already been warned. This isn't your fight,” he said tiredly. “You've gotta get your priorities straight.”

“I can't just walk away.”

“There's nothing else you can do,” he reasoned, but his words just made her more stubborn. “Now, please, just go home.”

“Stop watching me,” Chloe demanded in anger, tired of being watched and ordered around, tired of feeling so much pressure to be something, someone she didn’t know how to be.

“You know I can’t do that,” Alek said with frustration, his eyes dark with hurt at her curt tone.

Chloe glared at him, taking out all her frustration on Alek, before storming away.

#  Present day…

“I’ll miss you,” Keira said softly, watching as Chloe paused to look around the cabin, their two small duffle bags on the bed, nothing of the two visiting Mai left in the room.  “I know we just met-“

“I’ll miss you too, I hope you consider me a friend, I know I think of you that way.”

“I do,” Kiera reassured the downtrodden Mai.  “And I’m sorry I got you into trouble.”

“No, it was my fault. I wanted to go.”

“But I shouldn’t have let you, I…”

“It’s not your job to keep me safe,” Chloe said, attempting to push cheerfulness into her expression.

“Is it Alek’s?” Kiera asked.

Chloe was silent, no answer forthcoming.  Yes, Alek was her protector, but he was more than that.  At least she thought of him as more than that. But maybe it was only their trip, this time together when they had to rely on each other, trust each other that had made Chloe believe that they were in a better place now than when they’d left the city.

“That must be difficult,” the Jackal girl sympathized.  “Chloe, I’m five years older than you, let me give you a piece of advice.” Chloe looked up at her dark haired friend, curious as to what she had to say. “Don’t waste time being unhappy. When I was your age it was like I enjoyed being miserable.  But I spent so much time overthinking every little thing… was I too young, would we last, did he really care about me, would he treat me well… endless questions and doubts until we ran out of time.”

Chloe’s mind flashed back to her mother telling her to be with the boy who made her happy.  If only it was that easy.

“Your relationship with Alek is complicated, I’m not making light of that. But Chloe, talk to him. Tell him what you want and what you feel.  Get it out in the open.”

#  _Previously…_

Chloe smiled softly at Vanessa, the daughter of Meredith’s new guy, Frank.  The girl was in love and hiding it.  It was such a normal teenage problem that Chloe felt herself relaxing.

“If there's someone out there that makes you feel like that, then you should tell them how you feel,” Chloe said with a smile, wondering if she was strong enough to take her own advice.

#  _Present day…_

“If he breaks your heart, at least you’ll know and you can start to heal, make decisions for your future that aren’t hinged on if he loves you back.” Kiera approached Chloe and hugged her tightly.  “I hope to see you again, with a happy smile on your face, soon.”

Running her hand down Chloe’s long curls, Kiera breathed in the scent of her new friend one more time.  “I was your age when I met Murphy.  He was dead two years later. Two years that I wasted thinking that I was too young.  I was afraid to accept that I’d met my forever already.  But none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, let alone forever.”

Chloe sat silent and alone for a long time after Kiera left her alone.  Her mom had encouraged Chloe to be with Brian, thinking that the older boy made her daughter happy.  But Chloe had always held back from Brian.  She’d liked him, wanted to help him, enjoyed spending time with him, but anytime he’d tried to advance their relationship, she’d withdrawn.  Chloe had gotten good at relying on her instincts, and had to believe that the instinct to not be truthful with Brian, not become his girlfriend meant something. 

Chloe hadn’t hesitated to tell Paul and Amy, and she’d had to bite her tongue daily to keep the secret from her mom.

#  _Previously…_

Despite being angry at her, Alek had shown up on her roof after her mom had grounded her after getting caught outside the house in the middle of the night. “Amy said that you were thinking about telling her that you're Mai.”

“There's one person who can't keep a secret,” Chloe said lightly, moving over so she could face him once he took a seat. 

“In her defense, I can be fairly persuasive,” Alek asserted with a smug smile.

“I thought you were mad at me,” she said hesitantly.

“Who says I’m not?” he replied, giving nothing away.  “Chloe… Maybe your mum would be different. But once you tell her, once you cross that bridge... Just know that things can never ever go back to the way they were.”

#  _Present day_ …

But she’d never really wanted to tell Brian. Maybe she’d clung to the idea of him because he was normal, a normal that was now denied to her.  Only he wasn’t so normal, he was born to a family who was part of the Order, the leaders of the Order.  Dedicated to killing Chloe and all the Mai before moving on to the other races.

And then there was Alek. Always Alek. Keira was right, they needed to talk. But Alek didn’t want to talk.  Chloe resolved to give him some more time, but soon enough she knew she would have to push, have to clarify where they stood with each other.  And if he resisted, gave her one of his patented ‘I’m over it’ responses, she would have no choice but to take him at his word.

Returning to San Francisco meant returning to the front lines of a war that Chloe had been born to end.  She would have to be cautious, smart in her choice of allies, and diligent about spending her time and efforts where they could do the most good.

Chloe intended to return home, return to school, return to her life, while being the Uniter, and she needed Alek to make that happen.  She would need a constant guard, and would prefer that it be someone she knew and trusted, and at present that meant Alek or Jasmine.

 ==-Nine Lives-==

The plan for getting Chloe and Alek out of Washington without being followed by the Order or anyone else involved look alikes and a Canadian border crossing. 

Joe selected two Jackals who could pass for Chloe and Alek from a distance.  Dressing them like the two Mai teenagers, and sending them off in Chloe’s SUV with two more Jackal guards, they’d headed to the border crossing at White Rock.  Parking the car, the four Jackals would walk across the border where another Jackal would pick them up and head east. 

The two “guards” would walk back across and drive the four hours back to Aberdeen, picking up a new license plate from a Jackal that ran a chop shop in Seattle. 

At the same time Chloe and Alek along with Joe and a few other Jackals, specially selected for their trustworthiness, would walk south through the forest, traversing nearly 30 miles cross country to Raymond, Washington where they would meet up with the Jackals who had Chloe’s SUV. 

It was complicated enough to work, but as soon as Chloe and Alek got close to home, they’d be easily recognizable for anyone on the lookout. 

Words 5461


	5. Chapter 5

#  _Chapter 5  
Returning home…_

Good to her word, Chloe and Alek returned to San Francisco 13 days after leaving.  It felt both too short and too long a time away.  Chloe wasn’t sure what she was returning to, for all she knew the Mai could try to lock her up again. She snorted, ‘for my own protection, she thought bitterly. 

Alek glanced at her from the driver’s seat.  “Problem?”

“No, just wondering what’s waiting for us,” Chloe said looking at the approaching red arches that iconically symbolized her home.  She knew there had to be a balance to be struck between doing what she was born to do, being herself, and being safe.  She just hadn’t found it yet.

“I’m not sure I can stop them if-“

“I know,” Chloe said quickly. “I don’t expect you to go against all the San Francisco Mai.”

“I would,” he said softly.  “For you. I may not understand you, but I trust you when it comes to being the Uniter.  Your instincts are good. Just follow them.” She arched one sardonic eyebrow at him, challenging him nonverbally. “Your instincts, not your harebrained stubbornness,” he clarified with his crisp accent, still a bit sore that she’d left the Jackal camp without telling him.   “As the Uniter, you have power.”

“It didn’t seem like it when I was being shuttled around like a naughty child being put in timeout,” Chloe stated skeptically. “To them I’m just a newly turned Mai, a 16 year old girl who doesn’t know what to do and not do in this new world.”

“You won Valentina over, you’ll win them all over,” he said confidently.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because it’s your destiny. Because you’re you,” he said simply.  “Not all the Mai will want peace with the other prides let alone the other races,” he said as if she was in any doubt.  “There is a long history there. It won’t be easily forgotten.”

Chloe nodded and looked out the window at the passing scenery.  “Wait, pull off here,” she said quickly, seeing the sign for the Marin Headlands exit. Alek did as she bade, looking at her questioningly.  “I just need another minute, and I love the views from here.”

He nodded and wound his way up and to the west, past the first few turnouts that most tourists never ventured past. Parking in an empty lot, they exited Chloe’s SUV, walking towards the water, with a speaking glance they both began to run, completely alone, the wind and birds the only witnesses to their supernatural speed and agility.  Coming to a rest on the edge of the cliff that fell down to where the Pacific Ocean met the San Francisco Bay, they stopped, cheeks red with exertion and chill, even in May. 

“The city looks so small from here, peaceful,” Chloe said, wistful for the days when she’d come here with her mother and father, when the world had been safe and full of possibilities.  “Beautiful.”

Alek looked at her and frowned. “We don’t have to go back,” he offered.

“We do.  You said it earlier, it’s my destiny. And if you’re determined to watch over me, then it’s your destiny too.” She contemplated the Presidio across the bay, a lone cargo ship leaving a wide wake behind it as it powered out to sea.  “Do you ever think that San Francisco was kinda the perfect place for the Uniter to be raised?” Alek looked at her as she looked at the picturesque view of the city that was their home.  “That maybe it was my destiny to be here, now, in this moment?”

“The Uniter brought up in a city known for acceptance and diversity,” he said with his British pronunciation.  “It makes sense. But we were both born in the Ukraine.”

“Do you think we knew each other there? Our families?”

“I doubt it,” he said.  “My family was killed in Kiev and yours in Odessa They’re hundreds of miles apart. But if we’d stayed, if our families hadn’t been killed, we probably would have met.  Mai tend to gather.”

Chloe smiled briefly, then her expression sobered, her eyes dark and serious.  “Do you remember living there?” He nodded shortly, his eyes a fathomless dark brown, snippets of memories playing in his mind.

#  Previously…

Valentina and Chloe were talking in Valentina’s penthouse apartment.  “But you were born during such dark times,” Valentina said, lamenting that the Mai hadn’t found Chloe until she’d transitioned and already died once.  “So many Mai were scattered and lost. It’s part of my job to try to find them.”

“Don’t forget to tell her how I saved your life,” Alek interrupted, entering the room for yet another snack. “Twice.”

Valentina smiled, affection and exasperation clear in her face and voice. “Though some of them I wouldn’t occasionally mind giving back. His lost his parents in one of the slaughters.”

#  _Present day…_

“Will you tell me about it sometime? And your family?” she asked uncertainly. “Only if you want.”

“Someday,” he said, leaving the topic open, but Chloe could tell from his shuddered expression that he had no desire to relive his past.  “We should go, the sun’s about to set.”

“Just a few more minutes,” she demurred, shifting closer to him, her shoulder brushing his.  They’d grown closer over the previous two weeks, but Alek still held a part of himself back from her.  She didn’t know if it was his natural cautious reserve after a lifetime of hardship, or if he still didn’t quite trust her.  She was glad he hadn’t stayed mad or pushed her away after her latest snafu.

He’d kissed her, on multiple occasions now, before and after she’d hurt him, then hurt him again.  But despite the undeniable chemistry between them he remained aloof. Reserved. Always slightly separate from her. And more so since he’d overheard the conversation with her mom about her feelings for Brian and Alek. 

She didn’t like it. Every time she looked at him with a smile in her eyes, only to find his coolly shuttered look, her heart ached a little. She’d hurt him, put him down, denied her interest in him, and generally acted in a way that said that she didn’t much care if he was in her life or not.  But she did care. 

Now she regretted being so unsure, so stubborn.  She’d seen his better side, his loyalty and sensitivity, but had focused on his bossy arrogance and pushed back instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt.  She was to blame for the problems between them, but she didn’t know how to fix it if Alek wouldn’t let her start a conversation to clear up the lingering issues.

#  _Previously…_

After her first kiss with Alek and the confrontation with both Alek and Brian, Jasmine had sought Chloe out to talk.  “Look, Alek can be a first class jerk sometimes, but he’s also one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever known,” Jasmine said, her voice neutral, not accusing even as she defended her adopted brother.

“I get it. I just, I… I…” Chloe stumbled over her words. “I don’t know how I feel about him.  In that way. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

“Well, he deserves someone who does. He deserves someone who wants him for who he is, not a substitute for who he isn’t,” Jasmine declared.

“You know I would never do anything to hurt him,” Chloe said, turning to face Jasmine, her expression sincere but unsure.  But she had. She’d hurt him by rejecting him, hurt him with her indecisiveness, hurt him when she’d pushed him away, unsure of if he was really into her or if his feelings for her were tied to her being the Uniter. 

#  _Present day…_

She’d been unsure.  She wasn’t anymore. She knew he cared about her. Her. Not just the Uniter.  What she didn’t know was if he would ever trust her enough to open up to her about his feelings again.  Trust her enough to hear her and believe her when she told him how she felt.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, Chloe looked up the high arches, not able to see the top through the misty fog that was rolling in over the water.  Alek drove into the city, heading towards Chloe’s house, but she stopped him, placing her hand on his bicep.  “We should go to the hospital first.  I want to know what Valentina’s status is, and it will be better to have any confrontation with Curt in a public place,” she reasoned.

“She’s still in a coma, Jasmine would have called if anything had changed. And I’m not sure you’re right about Curt being _restrained_ by the presence of humans.”

“I take that to mean it’s not just me he doesn’t like, but humans too. Great,” she sassed wrinkling her nose. “I bet he’s a huge fan of Jackals and Falcons,” she said with heavy sarcasm.

“Curt is a jackass, he took control of the pride because he acts as one of Valentina’s security advisors, but he would not be elected if a vote were taken to replace Valentina.”

“We vote?” Chloe asked curiously, relieved that Curt wouldn’t be a long term problem. If he was the Pride leader, Chloe didn’t know how she could do what needed to be done from San Francisco.  And that meant leaving home to join another pride.

“Yes, what did you think that we fought it out like animals?”

“Well…” she shrugged, not ashamed. “Yeah.”

“Sorry to disappoint. We vote,” he said firmly, then smiled. “But in actuality the strong families usually keep leadership within their line.  The vote is more a vote of confidence.  Pride leaders have been usurped by stronger pride members, but that is fairly rare.”

==-Nine Lives-==

After parking a few blocks from SF General, Chloe and Alek snuck into the hospital through the basement, hoping to make it to Valentina’s room undetected.  Neither knew what to expect from the San Francisco Mai, they could be greeted happily, sent home, or in Chloe’s case, locked up again.   

Not seeing any Mai guards in the hall, Alek pushed open the private room’s door quietly, Chloe standing close at his back, scanning the hall for unwanted arrivals.

“Jasmine?” Alek asked, the tension draining out of his body.

“I thought you might come here,” his adopted sister responded from her seat by her mother’s bed.  “Chloe texted me when you guys got to Marin. I was about to give up and head home.”

“There’s no guard?” Alek asked, unsettled with the idea of Valentina being exposed.

“There is,” Jasmine corrected him. “I asked them to keep their distance and let you in unmolested.”

“Thanks,” Chloe said softly, walking over to hug Jasmine as the older girl stood.  “How is she?”

“The same.  No better, no worse. They said something about another treatment they were going to try, but I don’t know when that will happen,” Jasmine said with calm resoluteness, her arms tight around Chloe, speaking to her inner turmoil. 

“I’m so sorry,” Chloe said, releasing her friend, but keeping hold of her hand. Jasmine nodded, a tight smile on her face. 

“She’s too stubborn to die like this,” Alek said confidently. “She’ll be back. I know it.”

“I hope so,” Jasmine agreed, not wanting to lose her only parent.   “You should know… Curt is still in charge of security around the city, he’s running missions every night.”

“For what?” Alek questioned, eyes narrowed. Chloe looked confused, but didn’t ask what missions the Mai ran, she assumed she wouldn’t like the answer.  There was enough time for figuring out how to convince the Mai that the killing had to end, no matter the previous wrongs done to them.

“I don’t know,” Jasmine said, shaking her head. “They found some building the order used, but it was abandoned. I think it’s just to make him feel like he’s in charge and to make everyone else feel better.”

“Or to keep them scared,” Chloe suggested, earning surprised looks from both the other Mai teens. “If everyone thinks we’re under constant threat, aren’t they more likely to choose a leader with security background, like Curt?”

Jasmine nodded slowly. “You’re right. I hadn’t considered that.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Alek promised his eyes impossibly dark in the dimly lit room.

“The other decisions are being made by vote, with just the elders and other top advisors voting. We’ve managed to stop him from some of his overreaches.”

“We?” Alek asked.

“I have a vote,” Jasmine confirmed. “Alek you should know, with Mom out of the picture, lots of Mai are mentioning you-“

“Not now,” Alek interrupted sending Jasmine a long look, leaving Chloe confused as to what Jasmine had been going to say, that Alek either didn’t want to hear, or didn’t want Chloe to hear.

Chloe sighed feeling the weight of the responsibility start to weigh her down again.  There was so much she didn’t know, so much she had to do that required that she understood the Mai history and hierarchy.

Jasmine and Alek shared a long combative look before Jasmine rolled her eyes and sighed, giving in to Alek’s silent command.  “Anyway… Curt can’t take Chloe prisoner, officially, but he may still come after her to try to persuade her to his way of thinking…”

“Or scare her, or grab her, damn the vote,” Alek said in a strained voice.

“We won’t let that happen,” Jasmine reassured Chloe, squeezing her hand.  “I have ten Mai who are loyal to Mom, they’ll guard Chloe.  Two on during the day, since you and I will be close as well.  Four at night, alternating shifts.”

“Thanks Jaz,” Chloe said gratefully, accepting that for the rest of her life she’d probably have guards and be under surveillance.

“Don’t thank me yet. We all think you need to move into a more easily secured location.”

Chloe forced a tight smile. “We can discuss that later, for now, I should get home.”

Jasmine looked to Alek, seeing his resigned expression.  

==-Nine Lives-==

Alek parked near Chloe’s house, a parking spot miraculously available only a half block away.  Exiting the SUV, he looked around, ears pricked to pick up any sounds of movement.  Chloe pulled her bag from the backseat, looking at him and realizing what he was doing, she followed his lead.

“I only hear three,” she said after a minute.

“The roof, three houses down and behind us.  But that’s improvement from two weeks ago,” he said, neither complimenting nor criticizing. 

“Is there a way to tell a Mai from a human by their heartbeat?” she asked, curious if the Mai were so different from humans that even their heartbeats were different.

“No, but you can do that by smell, though in your case Mai doesn’t mean safe, so don’t rely on that too much.”

“Well,” she said with a bright, fake smile. “On that happy note, let’s go inside to find out how my mother is handling all of this.”

“I thought you said she took it well,” he questioned.

“I did. She did. But then I left town for two weeks,” she said with a grimace. “Moms in general object to things like that.  And when she finds out I went with you…”

“She likes me,” Alek insisted, faux insulted. 

“Yeah, but… she met you when you were lying in my bed. And you _continued_ to lie in my bed after she came into my room.”

“We weren’t doing anything, despite my best efforts,” he said with a smirk.

“No, but she knows that…” Chloe broke off and looked down, avoiding his eyes. 

“That…” he said with both eyebrows arched. 

“Never mind,” Chloe squeaked, wishing that she thought more before she spoke with him around.  “You didn’t act like a typical boy, and that worried her even more than you just being there.”

“A typical boy?”

“You just lay on my bed, totally at ease _after_ my mom came in. So not normal,” she said rolling her eyes.

“And just how many boys have you had up in your room?” he asked with a dark expression on his face.

“Counting Paul? Two,” she said, diffusing his jealousy, as she walked up the stairs to her front door, wondering if she should knock. 

Chloe hovered on the porch for a long moment, as Alek’s phone went off, indicating a text message.

“Mom?” Chloe called pushing open the door.

“Chloe,” Alek called in trepidation, his hand reaching for her as she stepped over the threshold.

“Chloe! Oh my God! You’re home,” Meredith rushed at her daughter, folding her into a fierce hug. “I missed you kiddo! Where have you been?”

“I missed you too,” Chloe said, hugging her mother back tightly.  Taking a deep breath through her nose, wanting the scent of home and her mom to surround her again, Chloe froze.

“Brian?” The scent was unmistakable.

“Hi Chloe, I didn’t mean to intrude,” Brian said bashfully, hanging back a few feet. His eyes shifted to the tall blonde boy behind her. “Alek.”

Alek stood at Chloe’s back, the text message warning him too late that the human was on the premises.  “Are you safe here?” he asked Chloe, his eyes not leaving Brian.

“Yeah, of course,” Chloe said.

Meredith pulled away from Chloe. “Why wouldn’t you be safe here? I know there are… your people all around.” Meredith looked from Alek to Brian. “Did I miss something?”

“Are you sure?” Alek pressed her and Chloe closed her eyes, reaching out with her senses. They had tried to come up with techniques that would help Chloe activate her empathy on command instead of waiting for strong feelings to reach out and grab her attention. 

She sensed a mix of emotions from Brian, including confusion, hurt, jealousy and anger, but no intent to harm her.  Her mother’s overwhelming relief and worry pounded on Chloe’s mind and she shut down the connection, happy that it faded to a dull nagging ache instead of an devastating tsunami of emotion. 

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I’m sure.”

“I’ll be outside,” Alek said shortly, not waiting for a response before exiting.

“What was that? Wait… was Alek with you this whole time?” Meredith asked. Chloe flushed, nodding in response, seeing her mother’s eyes go wide and Brian to stiffen.  “Chloe! I don’t know whether to be happy he was with you or ring your neck!”

“I would go with happy.  Alek is my friend, but he’s more than that. He protects me.”

Meredith huffed out a breath, clearly not sure which way to fall on the issue of Alek’s closeness to her daughter. Instead of making a decision she hugged Chloe again. “I’m so glad you’re home. Tell me where you’ve been.”

“Later Mom.”

“Now. I have been as patient and as understanding as I know how,” Meredith demanded.

“Maybe I should come back later,” Brian offered.

“I think that would be a good idea,” Meredith agreed.

“No,” Chloe denied and she heard Alek’s heavy foot fall as he descended the stairs, hoping he stayed close enough to hear the rest of what she had to say.  “I need to know what you know about the Order and your father,” she said, staring at Brian.   

“My father? The Order?” he asked in a confused tone. 

“Why did you come into my shop that day?” She asked, changing tacks.  “Was it just a coincidence?”

“What else would it have been?” he asked, eyes wide and innocent, but Chloe had felt his immediate strain as she said the words.

“What… What are you saying Chloe? Are you suggesting that Brian is one of the… ones who want to hurt you?”

“They want me dead,” Chloe said, not willing to let her mother live in denial.

“Who would want you dead? That’s crazy!  This is all from Alek, isn’t it?” Brian argued.  “He’s warped your mind, told you something to make you believe you need him.”

“No. It’s all true.  Alek has done nothing but protect me and tell me the truth,” Chloe said with cool certainty.  “Your father, your mother, your grandmother… they were all part of the Order. A group whose only purpose is to kill my kind. Kill me.”

“What are you taking about, my father… my mother would never…” he said angrily, his hands curling into fists.

Meredith looked from her daughter to the boy she’d thought would become Chloe’s first boyfriend and stepped between them. “I think you should leave now Brian.”

“No, Mom. Please. I want to know the truth.  I need to know, I don’t want to drag this out anymore,” Chloe explained.  “I’m Mai, Brian. I know you know what that is,” she said, not sure if he did or didn’t but taking a guess.

“I know. I didn’t, but I do now.  A Mai killed my mother.”

“If that’s true then I’m sorry.”

“Thanks?” Brian said his expression and tone telling her that her response wasn’t what he’d expected.

“Your mother died, maybe killed by Mai, I don’t know, you don’t know, neither of us was there.  But she’s not the only one who died. My parents, my birth parents were killed, slaughtered along with hundreds, thousands of others, by the Order, a group your father is part of. A group your mother was part of.  The Mai I’ve met aren’t killers. They only kill when they’re attacked.  The Order, your father, have tried kill me more than once in the past few months, so you’ll excuse me if my sympathy is a little overtaxed at the moment.”

“Chloe, my father… I’m not like him…” Brian said pleadingly.

“I… I think that’s true, but I don’t know,” Chloe said, not able to give him the reassurances and response he wanted.  “And I can’t risk it.  You have a temper. You hate Mai.”

“I don’t, I don’t know any Mai other than you,” he insisted, ignoring that Alek was Mai as well.

“I heard it in your voice when you said that Mai killed your mother. I felt it.” She looked at him regretfully. “I am sorry for your loss, sorry for you, but I can’t… I won’t put myself or anyone else at risk by taking a chance on you.”

“I never did anything to make you doubt me,” he insisted. “I would never hurt you.”

“You punched Alek for nothing.”

“He grabbed you,” he seethed.

“He touched my arm. Alek has never hurt me. Did I look like he was hurting me or did you just react because you don’t like him?”

Brian laughed bitterly. “Why would l like him?  The guy who likes the same girl as me. We’re not exactly going to be pals.”

“Why did you come into my store that day?  Did you come to find me?”

Brian clamped his mouth shut, looking away from her, but she knew she was right. She could feel the guilt and desperation rolling off of him. 

“So our meeting wasn’t a coincidence. You sought me out,” Chloe said with stunned betrayal. “That’s why you told me about your mother, why you wanted my help tracking down stuff, you thought I was part of it somehow,” she said hollowly,  wondering if part of the reason she had been drawn to Brian was because he’d asked for her help, the same way she’d been drawn to Kai. 

“I found your name,” he admitted. “It was in some of my dad’s files about a memorial for my mother.  I didn’t know what it meant.”

“That’s… disgusting. Your father’s memorial for your mother was supposed to be my death,” she said, revulsion clear on her face.  “All that talk about how you’d been so honest with me, was just that. Talk. You trying to pressure me into telling you my secret. Well, now you know. I am Mai. And I’m not ashamed.”

Brian looked at his feet, unable to meet her heated gaze.

“You have to leave. You lied to me.  I don’t know if I can or should trust you.  Even if I could, I can’t risk you being around me when you father is trying to kill me and my friends,” Chloe said firmly.

Her attention switched from Brian to the door as she heard Alek’s approaching rapidly. The door burst open, making Meredith jump with nerves.

“Chloe, we have to go,” Alek said breathlessly.

==-Nine Lives-==

At the hospital, Chloe watched with tears in her eyes as Valentina completed the cognitive tests the doctors were administering, standard procedure after a sustained coma.

Her eyes moved from Valentina to Jasmine who looked as if she was going to burst into tears at any moment, but was making a valiant effort to be strong, to be the stoic leader her mother had raised her to be.  Alek appeared unsure and Chloe realized that whatever had happened between him and Valentina the night they left the city was not going to evaporate in the good news of her recovery. 

Making a conscious decision of which side she stood on if lines were to be drawn, Chloe moved to stand at Alek’s shoulder, on the opposite side of the bed from Jasmine and the few other Mai in the room. 

After what seemed like hours, the doctors and Mai healers left, leaving the teenagers and a few Mai leaders in the room. 

Valentina cleared her throat, accepting a drink of water from her daughter with a grateful look.  “We have much to talk about,” Valentina said.  “Security must be our short term priority.  Jasmine’s plan for the Chloe is sound and should get us through these next few weeks.”

Valentina fixed her dark, timeless gaze on Chloe. “Chloe, will you accept this? There is no point-“

“I will.  But I want Alek to be in charge of my security,” she insisted, then paused.  “If he wants.” Alek nodded and Valentina could see that the connection between the two teens had deepened in the time she’d been unconscious. “Jasmine told me what she’d come up with, and I will not try to run away.  But I am going to remain in my home with my mother.  I will not be locked away in a tower. I have a mission to accomplish.”

“Yes, you do,” Valentina agreed. “I think we can keep you safe in your home for the time being. However, if circumstances change, we will need to reassess the situation.”

Chloe frowned but nodded, not seeing the confused look that passed between Jasmine and Alek.  Chloe’s home was not defensible if the Order mounted a direct attack, and Valentina knew it.  Her agreeing to let Chloe have her way in the face of the recent breach of Valentina’s own home was mystifying.

“Now, you three have school tomorrow.  I think you should get home and a good night’s rest. We can all meet tomorrow to discuss what comes next, and don’t think that either of you is off the hook for leaving town without a word,” Valentina said, her tone serious, but her soft expression said that her concern came equally from her motherly side and her position as leader of the San Francisco Mai Pride.

==-Nine Lives-==

As Alek escorted Chloe out of the room, Jasmine falling in step behind them, Valentina pulled a crème colored envelop out from under her leg.  “Confirm that this is true, that all the members of the Order in San Francisco are gone or dead.  Do it now,” she commanded. 

#### Previously that night…

Valentina had woken up with an unfamiliar human standing over her, a surgeons mask covering the lower half of his face.  She glanced down to see that her guards were unconscious on the floor.  “Who are you?” she forced the words past a dry throat and tongue that felt swollen.

“Not a friend, but perhaps not an enemy,” the man said, holding up a syringe. “You were poisoned by the Order, now we have healed you.”

“Why?”

“We have come to believe that you are the best Mai leader to guide the Uniter on her journey.”

“Is she safe?”

“She returned home tonight, with the Russian.”

“Alek?” Valentina asked, seeking clarification.

“The Petrov heir.  He has anointed himself her protector,” the man said with a faint gleam in his eyes.  “Those of us who remain will not seek to harm the girl as long as she acts for the betterment of all the races.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Read this letter, it contains all the information you need,” the man said, laying the crème envelope on her lap before leaving, stepping over the two unconscious Mai on his way out.

#  Present day…

“This letter says that a faction of the Order acted tonight to eliminate their more militant members.  The remaining members of the Order will be watching to find out if Chloe is a savior or a killer,” Valentina said, handing the letter to one of her trusted allies.  “Confirm the deaths, clean the scenes if necessary. Make sure you are not seen and expect a trap.”

The older woman with salt and pepper hair who had accepted the envelop nodded. “We’ll triple the guard on the Uniter for tonight in case this is a decoy.  We’ll be prepared for anything.  Do you think we can trust them?”

Valentina’s expression hardened. “No, if we can find them we eliminate them.  Chloe must be protected.”

“It isn’t what the Uniter wants,” the woman said casually.

“No, Chloe wants peace. That is her role.  Ours is to make sure she lives long enough to see her destiny come to pass.  I will accept the ramifications if she turns away from us, from me, over this order.”

“And if it is true? If the Order has fractured with a more tolerant grouping remaining?”

“Then Chloe is farther along in her mission than even she knows,” Valentina said softly.

==-Nine Lives-==

At home, Chloe had tea with her mother, catching her up but leaving out some of the details about her time away.  After an hour of talking, Chloe yawned.

“I guess I should let you go to bed even if all I want is to wrap you in my arms and never let go,” Meredith said, hugging Chloe again.

“I love you, Mom,” Chloe said softly.  “No implieds.”

“No implieds.”

 ==-Nine Lives-==

Closing the door to her bedroom, Chloe immediately crossed to her window, opening it and speaking softly. “Alek, can I talk to you?”  Not seeing any movement she spoke again. “Please Alek, I know you’re out here, and I know you’re not the only one.”  Leaving the window open, she moved back to her bag, unpacking dirty clothes and placing them in the laundry basket before setting her laptop on her desk. 

Without turning around, she spoke.  “I trust you Alek, and I need you by my side if I’m going to do this.”

“Do what?” he asked.

She turned around to see him leaning on the window frame.  “Be the Uniter, fulfill my destiny.  Live.”

“You trust me?” he said in disbelief.

“Yes.  Completely,” she said with ringing certainty.

“At the risk of making you run off again-“ he started.

“I won’t.”

“You always do,” he countered.

“Not anymore,” she said lifting her chin in challenge. “Things have changed.  I’ve changed. I’m done running from my destiny.” 

He stared into her eyes, trying to read her, see if he could believe her. Chloe held his gaze, but as the tension that had always reared itself between them rose again, she looked down, feeling flustered. 

“Say what you were going to. I can take it,” she said quietly.

“First, I don’t know who I trust anymore.”  He looked out the window, clearly uncomfortable with the words. “Including Valentina.”

#  _Previously…_

Jasmine and Chloe were sitting in the Mai leader’s penthouse apartment eating ice cream.  Chloe was pondering her empathy, and the danger her boss, Lana was in from an obsessive boyfriend.  “Chloe, I’m more worried. I don’t think my mom has been completely honest with you. It wasn’t just that one scar faced freak. The Order’s back, they’re in San Francisco.  They’re here for you,” Jasmine looked away. “I just get worried.”

Chloe nodded, worried about her own safety as well, but appreciating that Jasmine was telling her the truth.  “And I appreciate it.”

“I know this isn’t the life you were expecting,” Jasmine said in sympathy.

#  _Present day…_

Chloe wanted to ask if he trusted her, but why should he, she’d done nothing to earn it, so she held her tongue.  “But, why?”

“You said you trusted me, if you do, just believe me, and be careful.”

Chloe frowned, her mind racing but she nodded. “I do, I will.”

“She ordered me to lie to you… betray you, once, when she thought she knew better than you.”

“But you didn’t,” Chloe said with a frown.

“No.” 

“I am right to trust you,” Chloe said with quiet assurance.

“Then trust me when I say that there is something not right about your human.”

“Brian?  He’s not-“ she started.

“Do  you trust me or not?” he asked sharply.  She nodded, her expression pinched.  “Then accept what I’m saying. His appearance in your life, him constantly showing up, it’s just, I know you think this is personal but-“

“I believe you. Your instincts are good Alek. There’s a connection between Brian and the Order.” Chloe told Alek what the member of the Order who had sought them out in Washington told her about Brian’s family.

“Then you’re finally done with him.”

“I’m done,” she confirmed.

#  Previously…

Chloe and Alek were training in Golden Gate Park, late at night.  Using bamboo sticks, they pursued and defended against each other’s attacks until Chloe managed to take Alek down. She smiled in triumph, glad to have finally beat him once in a long night (followed by many others where he whipped the floor with her repeatedly).

“Impressive,” he praised her.

“You’re a good teacher,” she replied.

“Maybe I could teach you a few other things,” he offered suggestively.

“And already regretting the compliment,” she said with a unimpressed look.

“Jasmine told me you finally came to your senses, and ended your ridiculous flirtation with that… human,” he said, tossing her a bottle of water.

Chloe had quickly corrected him, that Brian was not leaving town like she’d thought and she was going to continue to see him.  Alek had not been happy, picking up his training stick again and attacking her while she wasn’t paying attention, hitting her stick so hard it shot out of her hands.

“Alek. What the hell?” she yelled.

“You never know when you’re going to be sucker punched,” he said, getting in her face, unapologetically. “Best to be prepared.”

Knowing that other Mai were watching them from a distance, he left her there without another word.

#  _Present day…_

Alek nodded and turned to leave but Chloe followed him, reaching out to stop him her hand touching his shoulder before sliding away.  “What… what do we do now? How do we move forward… I mean, with the Mai.  If you don’t trust Valentina, and I don’t trust Curt…”

“Carefully.  If something happens and you can’t get to me, or I can’t get to you, go to Jasmine. I think we can still trust her,” Alek thought out loud.

“Jasmine too?” Chloe asked, her fear and confusion clear.

“No… I don’t know,” Alek said, his customary confidence nowhere to be found, his back still to her. 

“I trust Jasmine, I think you do too,” Chloe said softly.  “No matter what happened to make you doubt Valentina and the other Mai.”

#  _Previously…_

The Rogue had lured Chloe away from her protectors, and like a fool she’d fallen for it, thinking that she would win in a fair fight. But of course he hadn’t fought fair, and Jasmine had had to pull Chloe from a tank of water just moments before Chloe would have drowned, losing another life. 

The girls had run, trying to get to safety, but the scar-faced freak had chased them down.  They’d faced off in a space with no exits.  The Mai traitor, the Order’s assassin, had pulled out a shotgun pointing it at Chloe.  “You’re right about one thing, this ends now,” he’d shouted in the pouring rain. “Good-bye Chloe.”

At the last second, Jasmine side-stepped, putting herself between the bullet and Chloe.  But Valentina had arrived just in the knick of time, killing the Rogue and saving both girls.

#  _Present day…_

He moved to step through the window, but Chloe stopped him again, laying her hand on his shoulder once more.

 “Wait… Can you stay here, inside, until I fall asleep?  I… feel safer when you’re… around,” she said haltingly.  For a long moment, she thought he was going to leave, but instead he closed the window and toed off his shoes before laying down on her bed like he had the first time he’d come over uninvited.

Chloe smiled at him, appreciative that he was willing to stay, give her what he wanted. She puttered around, going into her bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face, enjoying the comforts of being home.

Changing into a pair of her oldest, most comfortable pajamas she walked back out find Alek half sitting, half lying against the headboard with his eyes closed.  Chloe turned off the light and crawled onto her bed, pulling a light blanket over her as she wiggled around until she found a comfortable position, lying on her side, facing Alek. 

“Alek?” He looked down at her, her night vision allowing her to see that his expression was soft.  “Thank you for being here. With me. I couldn’t do this without you.”

“Go to sleep, we have a big day tomorrow.”

Chloe nodded and closed her eyes.  As she fell asleep she snuggled closer to him, his scent and warmth as familiar as her own after their two weeks together.  Alek helpfully slid down farther in the bed, and Chloe wrapped her arm across his firm stomach, settling into sleep against his side. 

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 6340


	6. Chapter 6

#  _Chapter 6  
First day back at school…_

Returning to school it was almost as if nothing had changed.  Except nearly everything had.  Or at least Chloe’s understanding had changed.

Amy picked up Chloe from her house, the two girls ran into the coffee shop they favored close to school, the rushed to park and get into school before the late bell.  Amy met Paul at her locker with a kiss, and Chloe smiled at them happily before moving on to her locker. 

Chloe looked around for Alek in the hall, but didn’t see him.  He’d left her house early in the morning to return to his home to get ready for school.  Jasmine passed by, offering Chloe a smile which she returned, but the warning bell sent Chloe scurrying to her first class.

“Ms. King… have a seat, and see me after class, I have your makeup assignments ready for you,” her English teacher greeted her with a skeptical look. 

“Thanks Mrs. Martin, I-“

“Sit, you may have time to be gallivanting around, but the rest of us have been here, reading the Bard’s best work.”

Chloe grimaced and took her regular seat.

Leaving her third period class, Chloe thanked her Mai strength because otherwise she was sure her arms would be burning under the weight of the books and papers her teachers had dumped on her. Chloe saw Alek outside his classroom and smiled at him, but if he saw her he didn’t react.  She lingered in the hallway, pretending to look at the bulletin board full of messages about the school’s various clubs, when really she was listening to Alek’s voice.

“I’m sure, I’ll be able to complete this work by next Friday,” Alek said. “The week after at the latest.”

“Just try to have it in by the end of the month,” the teacher said happily. Chloe rolled her eyes, Alek’s charm seemed to work on their teachers as well as the student body. 

Chloe’s spirits fell as Alek exited the classroom and made his way down the hall with a jaunty walk towards his friends, never acknowledging Chloe.  He’d been her stalwart companion through her entire journey, so far, as a Mai.  Even when she’d hurt him, he’d stuck by her side, offering her his honest advice, his protection, and his forgiveness whenever she’d needed it. 

#  Previously…

“I just like to point out that in a time of crisis, the guy you reached out to-“

“Was you,” Chloe said. “Can we start over?” she asked, looking at him and seeing that despite his usual pride and cockiness, he’d made the first move towards healing the rift between them that had opened after he’d kissed her, and she’d told Brian it was nothing, that nothing was happening between her and Alek. 

“What do you mean?”

“With everything. You were right. The other night… It wasn’t nothing, but I’m just not ready for it to mean as much as I think you want it to mean,” Chloe said softly, her expression vulnerable, managing to hold his gaze until she got the words out. “I need some time to sort all of this out.”

Alek was silent for a moment, and Chloe thought he might tell her, again, that he was over it.  But he didn’t.  Once again he gave her what she wanted.  All she’d had to do was ask.  “You know, I’m quite good at sorting,” he said with an amused look, causing her to laugh.

“Huh. As good as you are at complicating?” she teased.

“Perhaps even better,” he teased her back, faux serious.

She laughed again and nodded, looking out into the night.  “Hmm.  So a fresh start then. Maybe on a night when one or both of us hasn’t almost been killed.”

“I don’t think I can work within those kind of _crazy_ restrictions,” Alek deadpanned earning another giggle from her, then a soft kiss on the cheek as she looked into his eyes and saw his hope and forgiveness. 

#  Present Day…

Two days later Chloe wasn’t so sure that they had another fresh start in them.  Since they’d been back he’d all but ignored her when they weren’t alone.  He passed her in the hall at school, sometimes without even acknowledging her, sometimes giving her a nod and even rarer, a smile, but he never stopped to talk or sought her out. And when they met with the Mai elders and leaders at Valentina’s penthouse, he gave her his support but never tried to talk to her alone, never offered any conversation that wasn’t about Mai business. 

He’d stayed the night at her house every night since her return, sometimes sleeping beside her, sometimes falling asleep on the window seat, but he didn’t joke around with her, didn’t tease her, and she found she missed it.  She missed him, even when he was with her. 

He was withdrawing from her, drawing a clear line in the sand between them.  He was her ally, but maybe not her friend.

==-Nine Lives-==

That Friday, Chloe entered the cafeteria for lunch with heavy footsteps. She didn’t know how she was possibly going to finish all her make-up school work in time and still manage to sleep and get her current assignments done.  Let alone keep her grades up, while training, reassuring her mom that she was OK, while wading into Mai politics and trying to bring the Mai and other races together.

She didn’t know whether it was a blessing or not that she no longer had a job to go to. She doubted Lana would have given her job back after Chloe’s brief message about a family emergency, but Meredith had put her foot down, and after insisting that she meet with Valentina, the two women had decided that Chloe working in a public place where anyone could enter and anyone looking for her could find her easily was not acceptable.  Chloe had tried to argue against the two women, but she’d lost that fight.

Valentina had offered Chloe a stipend of sort, a Uniter salary, but so far Chloe had resisted taking anything from the Pride leader.

Sitting at the table she normally shared with Paul and Amy, Chloe slumped down.  “Long day?” Paul asked sitting next to her with a tray of salad, noodles, and what Chloe hoped was apple sauce. 

“You have no idea,” Chloe groaned.

“I can talk to your teachers if you want,” Alek said, sitting down and sliding a tray in front of Chloe.  “Get you some extra time.”

Chloe looked at him warily, not sure what to expect from him since he’d ignored her for most of the previous week, at least in public.  “Why not, your charm can benefit me as well as you, this once,” Chloe said with a bit of edge in her voice.

“Once?” Alek scoffed. “I believe you have benefited from my charming self upon many an occasion.”

Amy sat down with a cup of yogurt and a candy bar.  “Whose benefited from what?”

Alek opened his mouth to explain, but Jasmine cut him off. “Don’t even start,” she told her ‘cousin’ warningly. 

Chloe smiled at her friends, her gaze lingering on Alek.  “It’s good to be home.”  Looking away at her other friends she forced her smile to be brighter.  “It would be even better if I could get a solid eight hours of sleep.”

Alek frowned at her, having been woken up by her restless sleep every night that week.  He hadn’t realized that her nightmares were as bad or as frequent as he now knew them to be. She had shadows under her eyes after a particularly bad dream the night before, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it would be better to take her away, at least until she was older. 

Since Alek was now basically living at Chloe’s, and trailing her 24/7 he saw how stressful and hectic her life was, both physically and emotionally.  

==-Nine Lives-==

Later that day, Alek approached Chloe at her locker. “Training tonight?”

“Are you asking or telling me?” Chloe questioned, eyes narrowed as she wondered what had prompted the sudden defrosting of his public behavior towards her.

“Telling. The Order may be neutralized, but that just means we need to take advantage of this time to get you prepared to face the next threat,” he said.

“The next threat?”

Alek stepped even closer to her, crowding her against her locker, his height and broad shoulders blocking out the world for a moment.

#  _Previously…_

Alek stood inside Chloe’s personal space as he told her that she had to train to learn how to control her Mai abilities. Chloe looked up at him. “Has anyone ever told you you're a close talker?”

“Just you,” he replied with a cocky smile.

“It's not a compliment,” Chloe said, sending him a discouraging look.

#  _Present day…_

Chloe tilted her head back to look up at Alek as he invaded her personal space. She could feel eyes on them as one of the most popular boys in school appeared to be making a move on a mostly unknown Junior.

“If you insist on getting to know the other races, you should know that not all of them are going to welcome you with open arms.  Some will want to challenge you, some will want to kill you,” Alek said pointedly, as if it was news to her.

“I have to check with my mom and I have a ton of makeup work…”

“Training, tonight. Be ready at seven,” he insisted. “That gives you several hours to do homework and have dinner.”

“Fine,” Chloe agreed, already tired.

“I promise to get you home and tucked into bed early, but maybe if you work up a sweat you’ll sleep better,” he said with a suggestive leer that toured her body.

Chloe flushed and Alek smirked in response.  Walking away, he fell in step with several of his human friends that he knew mostly from various sports.  “Hey Petrov, what’s up with that?”

“What?”

“Cute little blonde piece of ass?” a cocky dark haired jock asked. “You been on that tail for awhile now.”

Alek’s expression hardened, his hand clenching into a fist.  “You’ll have to be more specific,” Alek said in his crisp accent. 

“Chloe King,” one of Alek’s less sexist friends said. “And I’d say she’s more of a strawberry blonde.”

“Oh, her…” Alek said with studied casualness.  He twirled one of his notebooks in his hands idly, then spun and pushed the first guy into the wall. “Talk about her like that again and you’ll be drinking through a straw for a week.”

“Oh, OK, man, I was just kidding, whatever, didn’t know you were sprung on her,” the first boy said defensively.

“Chloe is… special.  That’s all you need to know,” Alek said, turning his head so each of his human friends could read the seriousness in his expression.

“Right, cool.  She seems great,” a third jock offered in supplication. 

==-Nine Lives-==

That night Alek took Chloe running, wanting her to remember the freedom and power that came with being Mai, not just the obligations and danger. 

She was smiling as she fell into bed, Alek hiding on the roof as her mom came into her room quietly to check on Chloe, brushing a lock of hair off her forehead with a look of all encompassing love for her daughter on her face. 

==-Nine Lives-==

The next night after training, Alek took Chloe back to his home. Chloe wanted to talk to Valentina about sending messages to the other known races, inviting them to come to San Francisco to talk.

“I don’t know if we’re ready for this,” Valentina advised.

“I am,” Chloe insisted.  “This is what I was born to do.  I’ve already lost three lives, how long do you want me to wait?”

Valentina looked at Chloe, reading her determination, and nodded.  “We can start with the Jackals, we know where they are, and they have the greatest numbers of the surviving races.”

“We’ve already met with the Jackals,” Chloe stated.

Valentina looked from her to Alek. Alek shrugged as he ate an apple. “And not the ones that were here in San Francisco this past spring, I assume.”

“No, we actually stayed with them at an encampment in Washington,” Chloe said with a smile. “We’ve had contact with the Falcons as well.”

Valentina arched one speculative eyebrow. “I see.”  She considered Chloe for a moment. “Perhaps we could invite the Ave, descendants of Thoth.”

“I was actually thinking the Oracles,” Chloe suggested with some uncertainty.

“Descendants of Ma’at. You’ve been learning,” Valentina said approvingly. The Oracles had been given the gift of divinity, able to discern the truth in spoken words. It was rumored that some of them could also see the past and future, as well as other truths not spoken, but Valentina wasn’t sure if they still retained that level of cognizance. They were also known to have maintained neutrality in all conflicts throughout time.  If Chloe spoke to them, convinced them that she was the Uniter and meant to bring peace to their lives, word would spread quickly among the other ancient races. 

Just as importantly word would spread among the Mai, and any ideas of killing Chloe to prove that she was the Uniter would be scrapped.  No Mai pride  leader would be willing to answer for the loss of another of her lives if proof had already been offered.

Chloe’s strategy was sound, and well thought out.  Valentina appreciated that the girl had a grasp of the politics and wondered if her time away with Alek had helped shape that understanding.

“Alek taught me,” Chloe said, crediting the young Mai that was often a challenge to Valentina’s patience.

Valentina smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She was glad Chloe trusted Alek, relied on him, but there had been a distance, a barrier, between Valentina and Alek since the night they were attacked by the Order.  Alek no longer seemed to trust Valentina, and that worried the Mai leader. She wanted more control, more involvement, in how Chloe proceeded, but if both Chloe and Alek were now wary of Valentina and other Mai in general that would never happen. 

“It may take awhile to locate an Oracle, then for them to communicate to their leaders, if they are even that organized,” Valentina cautioned.  “We have no idea where to find them, the last Mai sighting of an Oracle was over 100 years ago.”

“That’s where Joe comes in,” Chloe said happily.

“Joe?”            

“Joe. He’s a Jackal. And an amazing sculpture artist.  You should really see his work,” Chloe said easily.

“I’m sure it’s lovely, if I had the opportunity.”

“You’re in luck,” Chloe said, springing the trap. “My mom set up a show for some of the Jackals we met in Washington.  They have some really amazing artists, and my mom has a friend who has a gallery on the Embarcadero. Joe and several other Jackals will be arriving in San Francisco in the next few days.”

“Chloe…” Valentina said reluctantly.

“Joe is my friend, and has offered to help us locate and contact the other races. The Jackals move around a lot, and know where many enclaves are.  Besides, can you imagine any better primer to what we’re trying to accomplish than to have a Jackal invite an Oracle to meet the Mai?”

Valentina smiled, appreciating Chloe’s strategy, but foreseeing problems with some of the more truculent Mai.  “And when should we expect Joe? Will he require accommodation?”

“No, but thanks. Really. I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” Chloe admitted.  “I know not all the San Francisco Pride welcome what I’m trying to do.”

Jasmine entered the room, crossing to the kitchen to get a glass of water. “They’ll come around,” she offered supportively.

“They have no choice,” Valentina said, confident in her ability to ensure compliance.  “I had thought it would be better to begin with the other Mai Prides, we’ve already had issue with the San Paulo Pride accepting you as the Uniter.”

“I know,” Chloe agreed.  “They’re next. And I’ll need help with them.  I seem to have an easier time with the other races than I do Mai.”

#  _Previously…_

Chloe had met Nikki and Lilah at the vintage clothing shop she’d worked at.  The two South American girls had pretended to shop while checking Chloe out.  Their lack of subtly made Chloe suspicious, but as soon as the girls had revealed that they were Mai, Chloe had relaxed. 

Happy with her new acquaintances, Chloe had eagerly accepted the girls idea for a fun girls night out, despite Jasmine’s reservations and the fact that Nikki and Lilah had apparently ignored Mai rules by not coming to Valentina to inform the SF pride leader as to their presence in her city. 

Chloe had a good time out dancing with the girls, glad that Amy and Jasmine had come out as well, but things had gone badly soon after.  Nikki and Lilah’s attitude towards humans had put Chloe’s back up, but still she’d wanted to believe that they were good people, that their ideas about the other races were just a little extreme.

“I wish you had appeared in Sao Paulo first,” Nikki said.

“We would have been ready for you, taught you to enjoy who you are, embrace it,” Lilah went on. 

Chloe frowned, but spoke lightly. “Valentina is doing that.”

“Not in the same way,” Nikki said.

 “The Uniter should have no fear, particularly of humans,” Lilah insisted. “The one thing Valentina hasn't taught you about them-- they're inferior to you in every way,” Lilah said arrogantly, her pride in her Mai heritage obvious. 

“Are you serious?” Chloe asked, shocked. “Is that what you really believe?”

“You'll come to find out it's true. You have so much potential, Chloe,” Nikki said, and Chloe tried to ease herself out of the conversation, but Lalah’s invitation had stopped her in her tracks and made her worried.

“Come to Sao Paulo with us,” Lilah invited, and Chloe’s unease grew. “Come and see how much better life can be with a truly powerful pride.”

Chloe smiled awkwardly and laughed to try to diffuse the tension.  “I don't really speak Portuguese, so probably not the best option.”

“We were sent here to bring you home with us.”

“Well, tell them you asked and I said no.”

Later Chloe had found just how little the San Paulo Pride valued human life, and when she’d expressed her thoughts on that, Nikki and Lilah had tried to kill her.  Jasmine had warned her that the San Paulo Pride had been getting aggressive, cutting ties with other prides, but Chloe still hadn’t realized how far her new friends would go.  They’d said that she wasn’t the Uniter they’d expected, and she would need to prove who she was. 

Nikki and Lilah showed up at the book store next to where Chloe worked, telling the younger girl once again that they were given strict orders to bring her back, even though they were beginning to doubt if Chloe really was the Uniter.

Jasmine showed up and told Nikki and Lilah that Chloe is under the protection of Valentina, and she and Chloe left the bookstore only to find themselves chased by the two visiting Mai girls. 

Taking shelter in an abandoned building, Jasmine and Chloe split up.  Jasmine engaged in a fight with Nikki, while Lilah found and attacked Chloe. Jasmine threw Nikki off and went to Chloe’s aid, but when Nikki picked up a metal pole and tried to hit Chloe with it, Chloe dodged and Nikki was electrocuted when she hit an electrical box instead.  Looking at her dead sister, an enraged Lilah told them they would pay for what they did and before running away.

#  _Present day…_

“That’s not true, Chloe,” Jasmine disagreed. “All the Mai who have gotten to know you trust you.”

“Not all,” Chloe disagreed with a grimace. “But even if that was true, it’s still a problem, I can’t get to know all of them. I only have five lives left,” she laughed, but it was a strained laughter, not a joyous one. 

“I may have a solution for that problem, if you’d like to hear it,” Valentina said, soft pedaling it.  Chloe nodded, seeing Jasmine smile and nod. 

==-Nine Lives-==

A few days later, Chloe returned to her house after having dinner with the newly arrived Jackals. They’d taken over an old building off Market that Chloe’s mother had been able to locate.  Zoned for mixed use, it was awaiting refurbishment, and the Jackals would be able to live and work there for several months.  It was pretty Spartan, dank really, but Joe hadn’t seemed to mind. 

They’d also set up a fallback position in Oakland, in case relations with the Mai went bad or the Order made a move against the newcomers.  Chloe appreciated the trust that Joe was putting in her, telling her about the safe house in the hills.

After saying goodnight to her mom she returned to her room, trying to read the assigned chapter of her history book, but her mind wandered to more current events. The teenager considered the upcoming meeting, if the Oracles were willing to make the trip from South Africa where most of their remaining population seemed centered.

Chloe looked out her window into the dark San Francisco night.  She wanted the meeting, but she was worried.  So much could go wrong.  And if she started on the wrong foot… it could all to wrong. 

Alek still hadn’t told Chloe what had happened to make him doubt Valentina, and the night after they’d sent out the invitation to the Oracles to come to San Francisco to meet with Chloe, she realized it could be a big problem.

“Alek,” she called from her window.  “Please come in.” He’d spent every night since their return to SF with her, but he never came in uninvited, which had been his habit before the night that changed everything. 

He slipped inside while she was in the bathroom washing her face and combing out her hair.  Reentering her room she found him sitting on the end of her bed, his shoulders bowed. “Are you tired? You should go home, I’ll be fine-“ his harsh look cut her off.  “OK,” she said with exaggerated pronunciation.  “Then that leads me to my next topic, but I want you to actually sleep tonight Alek.  You know you’ll wake up if anything is wrong, so why not at least try to sleep?” He opened his mouth but she gave him a warning look. “That was a rhetorical question.”

“What did you want to talk about?” he asked, not conceding the point.

“I’m sorry, but I have to ask, I need to know... why don’t you trust Valentina? What happened?”  Alek held her gaze for a moment then looked down, his head hanging low, his elbows braced on his spread legs.  “Alek... I’m sorry, I am. But I do have to know. If I’m inviting the Oracles here for what amounts to peace talks, I can’t have any surprises... not from the Mai.”

She saw him thinking through his answer or whether to answer at all.  “We need to find out what Mai are loyal to you, as the Uniter, and which are loyal to Valentina and Curt.”

“Me? Why would anyone be loyal to me? Just because I’m the Uniter...”

“Exactly. You are the Uniter. You were destined, foretold, we’ve been waiting for you.  You’re supposed to end the warring. End the killing.  Some of us thought that you were just supposed to unite the Mai, but now we know you’re here to unite all the races.”

“What happened? What did she do?” Chloe asked again, causing Alek to frown and look down once more.  “Alek... If it’s something we can clear up... this would all be easier if we had her on our side.  As of right now the only one I know for certain is on my side is you.  Well, you, my mom, Amy and Paul,” she said with a wiry smile. 

“When the Jackals came... she told you she would let you guide the lost one home.  But she told us to text her the location as soon as we knew so she could send in Mai hunters to kill them all,” Alek explained. 

#  Previously…

Chloe had gone to Valentina’s home to tell her, Jasmine and Alek that she was going to escort Kai to Jackal territory, but Valentina said she wouldn’t allow it.

“I didn't come here to ask permission; I came here to tell you what I'm doing. I'm gonna take him back to his family and no one is going to hurt him,” Chloe declared stubbornly.  “Look, I understand that you have, like, a 3,000-year-old feud going on-- a truly Jurassic grudge-- but I understand how he feels literally. If you hadn't found me when you did, I don't know what would've happened to me.”

“Let his own people rescue him,” Alek said shortly.

“Fine,” Chloe agreed with a glare.  “If you let them into the city, I'm sure they will.”  She paused and tried to speak calmly. “You told me to trust my instincts. You all have. Well, my instincts are telling me to help Kai. I'm right about this. I know it.”

Valentina considered Chloe then inclined her head. “Returning this-- this boy is obviously very important to you.”

“You're not really going to let her do this, are you?” Alek objected.

“It doesn't appear that I have much of a choice, but I do have a request. If you take Alek and Jasmine with you, then you have my blessing.

Chloe left the penthouse apartment, certain of a positive outcome.  But back inside the debate raged on.  “This is insane,” Alek argued. “You're the one who said it wasn't a coincidence that it found Chloe. She could lose a life or worse.”

Valentina was calm in the face of his anger. “But you're both going to make sure that doesn't happen.”  Sending a long look at her daughter and adopted son, she explained. “Once it tells you where the rest of the Jackals are hiding, you'll text me immediately. I'll have a dozen of our best hunters standing by. Under no circumstance are you and Chloe to engage the Jackals.  
You are not to go anywhere near them. Is that understood?”

Alek looked unsure, but this time it was Jasmine who voiced her objection.  “Mom, we gave Chloe our word.”

“She might be the Uniter, but she doesn't yet understand the world that we live in,” Valentina said with deadly intent. “The Jackals must all be destroyed.”

#  Present day…

Chloe gasped, her mind racing. A trap within a trap. A trap laid for her by the Jackals, a trap for the Jackals using her as bait.  “I never texted.  I didn’t... I didn’t want to betray you.”

“You didn’t. You never have,” she said quietly, sitting beside him on the bed. 

#  Previously…

At the abandoned rail terminal that Kai led them too, they found signs of a Mai attack.  Chloe had impetuously followed Kai into the darkness, turning her anger on Alek. “How could you?”

Inside she’d quickly been separated from Alek and Jasmine, and hearing Amy scream, realized it was a trap.

Elsewhere in the dark tunnels, Jasmine turned around despertly trying to listen for Chloe, so they could follow her.  “We have to find her. Where are those damn hunters?”

Alek looked grim. “They're not coming. I didn't text Valentina.”

“Why not?” Jasmine shouted in despair.

“We gave Chloe our word.”

Present day…  
“Zane... he said... when I came in that night, he said he was my brother,” Alek said haltingly, his words shocking her.  “But Valentina said my whole family was killed in the slaughter. She swore that there was no one left alive.”

“Maybe he lied?” Chloe suggested weakly, knowing Alek must have considered that, but if he was still doubting Valentina, then there was something about Zane that struck a chord, unconsciously she reached out to him.  Alek looked down at her hand resting on his forearm. 

“I had a brother. A sister too,” he said, his voice lost and bewildered. “Parents, cousins...”

“Why would she lie?” Chloe asked, shifting closer to him, wanting to offer comfort in any way she could. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but what would she have to gain?”

“My family... we were powerful. Wealthy and strong.  Most Mai have human blood mixed in. Prior to the curse, it was common for Mai to mate with humans.  Only a few pure blood families remained.”

“Including yours,” Chloe thought out loud, her eyes distant as she considered what she knew. A Mai and human could mate now that the curse was lifted, and human/Mai marriages had been common prior to the curse.  Any children born of the interracial marriages were Mai, but each added human to the family tree diluted the Mai strength and instincts. They were still Mai but it would be like comparing a mountain lion to a domesticated pet.  The pet still had claws and could scratch the shit out of your arm, but there was no contest when juxtaposed with a mountain lion.  “I really am sorry to ask, Alek but I do want to know what happened to you... I know you were adopted, lived in England before Valentina found you... maybe she didn’t know your brother had survived.” 

Alek turned his head, shifting his gaze from the floor to the pale perfection of her face, his eyes a bottomless darkness, his grief and loss palpable.  “After... after they were all killed, the police came. They didn’t understand what had happened any more than I did. Now we know that the Order must have known you’d been born somewhere in the Ukraine, and were attempting to kill you by killing all Mai in the region,” he said making her chest ache with guilt.

Chloe didn’t remember her Mai parents.  She felt a vague sense of loss and sadness for them, but nothing that could compare to what she saw in Alek’s face, heard in his voice.  He remembered his family.  He remembered loving them and losing them. 

“My brother… “  Alek looked away from her again, lost in his memories.  “He hid me in an old tunnel in the road behind out house. We’d discovered it on accident one day, and kept it a secret. Our secret hiding place. He was a few years older than me, and I followed him everywhere,” Alek reminisced.  “But not that day.  That day the screams and the fire scared me, I didn’t know what was happening, but he must have.  He took me to the tunnel and ordered me to stay. Made me promise.”  Alek looked up at her his bewilderment written on his face.

“That was the last time I saw him.  Until… Three days later I had to leave, breaking my promise. I was hungry and…  When I did, everything, everyone was gone.”  He shook his head and Chloe squeezed his arm, sliding her hand down to clasp his hand.  Alek focused on her touch, closing his other hand over hers and squeezing it, keeping her hand tight against his.  “All I knew was that everyone I had known and loved was gone.  They put me in emergency care, then an orphanage. Record keeping wasn’t of much importance.  If any surviving Mai or outsiders came looking for survivors, they missed me.  I spent two years starving and alone in an orphanage in Ivankiv.”

Chloe shifted closer to him, her side pressed tightly to his, her mind full of questions, wanting to know, but feeling horrible for making him relive what were obviously horrible memories. “How old were you?”

“Three or four when they died. Birthday’s aren’t big among the Russian Mai,” he said, forcing a smile. “I was about six when I was adopted.  I was lucky. Most kids that old never get adopted. They were an older couple that had never been able to have children. They took me back to England with them.  I didn’t speak English, and I had no manners or idea how to be like them.” Chloe squeezed his arm, leaving her hand resting there.  “I learned fast. I became the child they wanted.  I made friends, did well in school, played sports.  And they loved me.”

“What happened?” Chloe asked, already knowing some of the story.  Alek had warned her not to tell her mom, that that bell, once rung, couldn’t be un-rung.

“I started to transition. They couldn’t handle it.  It was a lot slower for me, than you. But earlier. I was only 12 when I started to notice the changes,” he said, and Chloe wondered if it was because he was a pure blooded Mai.  “What happened to you... I’ve never seen that. No one has,” he said, eyes narrowed as if her transition still perplexed him.  “Maybe it was so you would stay under the radar longer… I don’t know. I thought you might be Mai, I waited, watched but you never… “

“And then I did,” she said softly, looking into his eyes.  “How did it happen for you?”

“At first I was just stronger, faster than I had been. And my instincts started to kick in. I needed to be outside, running, moving.  Our instincts also draw us to other Mai. I looked and looked, without knowing what I was looking for.” He turned his hand over sliding his palm against hers and Chloe felt the heat from that simple touch warm her whole body. Without thought she slid her fingers between his, intertwining the digits.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone,” Chloe murmured.  Alek pulled his hand way, making her heart stutter, but he simply traced the lines on her palm slowly, her hands small compared to his before linking their fingers again, his thumb tracing a circle on the back of her hand. 

“You were alone too,” he said.

“Only like for a day. Then you found me,” she scrunched up her face. “Or found me out.”

“My adoptive mother saw me jumping off the roof one day, and up into a tree. It was clear I wasn’t entirely human. I didn’t know what I was, but I tried to explain about the changes. She freaked out.  Then my adoptive father came home. They talked and...”

“And?”

“And it wasn’t what they signed up for,” he said hollowly.  “They offered to send me back to the Ukraine. I ran away instead,” Alek said with no emotion, breaking Chloe’s heart for the boy he had been, the boy who had already lost his family once before being rejected by his new family. “Not even six months later, Valentina found me.  I guess news of a nearly feral Mai kid living on the streets gets around.”

“Has Zane said anything? Why he did it?” Chloe questioned, but Alek’s shuttered look and silence told the tale.

He lay awake a long time that night as Chloe rested against him, her body soft with sleep.  Her arm was lying across his body, her hand linked with his once again. Alek wondered what, if anything, she meant by it.  Chloe didn’t seem to be a touchy person by nature, but she had instigated the contact between them, and Alek was greedy enough to take whatever she offered. 

He felt her body tense her eyes fluttering with another dream and shifted her closer, his arm slipping around her back, rolling her onto her side, forcing her into closer contact with his body.  “Shh… you’re safe, I’m with you,” he murmured, his lips pressed to her temple.  She settled down almost immediately and Alek finally closed his eyes, letting sleep wash over him, hoping that the memories that he had dredged up for her benefit would not haunt either of their minds that night. 

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 6024


	7. Chapter 7

#  _Chapter 7_

The next day, Chloe took advantage of Alek having a makeup test after school.  Promising to stay close to her other guards, she left school, heading straight for his home.  Chloe entered Valentina’s penthouse to find the Mai leader drinking tea alone. “Chloe, I wasn’t expecting you. Alek and Jasmine aren’t here, if you-“

“I know, I came to see you. Alone,” Chloe said seriously.

“Alright, would you like some tea?” Valentina offered.

“No, yes. Maybe.” Chloe said, flustered. “I want to know what you know about Zane. Who is he, why did he come, why did he try to kill you?” Chloe said in a rush.

“Zane-“

“Is that even his real name?” Chloe interrupted, causing Valentina to set down her tea cup and look at Chloe more intently.

“You know, which means Alek knows, yet this is the first either of you have mentioned Yulian to me,” Valentina said calmly.

“Then it’s true, he’s Alek’s brother.”

“We’re waiting for the genetic tests to come back, but yes, it appears to be so.  Simone, an assassin for the Order took him from their home, raised him as her pet Mai the night that the rest of Alek’s family was killed.  She raised him to hate us, to kill us.  He could do what she could not.”

“Walk through the front door,” Chloe murmured. “Why didn’t you tell Alek?”

“That he was alive? I didn’t know. His body wasn’t found, but the Order is not above doing autopsies and medical experiments on Mai.  That he was not Zane, but Yulian?” she sighed. “I thought it would do more harm than good.”

“And lying to him?  Did you consider the harm that might do?”

Valentina tried to explain that she had done what she thought best, that Alek had already mourned for his family before Valentina found him living on the streets of London, and she hadn’t wanted to give him hope, false hope, based solely on the fact that his brother’s body had never been found.

Chloe frowned, but the explanation seemed reasonable. “Zane, I mean Yulian, he said something to Alek that made it seem like the attack on you was personal.”

Valentina’s mouth tightened, and she looked down for a moment. “It wasn’t and it was,” she said, looking up. “The plan was to remove your protectors, then kill you, or convince you that Mai were evil. I’m not sure. There seem to have been competing factions within the Order.  That is to be expected.  But, it was personal. Alek’s father was the leader of the Eastern European Pride.  It was, at the time, the largest and most powerful pride.  Then the Order began systematically eliminating whole villages of Mai.”

“They were looking for me,” Chloe said softly.

“Yes, they probably were.  But that is not your fault, Chloe. Their hate, their vengeance has nothing to do with who you are as a person, only who you were as a symbol to the Mai,” Valentina said in her soft voice that held so much power without shouting.  “Alek’s father, Andre, wanted to move the majority of his people out of the Ukraine after the first few massacres.  We agreed, but no single pride in the US or western Europe could, or would, take them all.  So we began moving them, family by family, distributing them across the various prides.  The idea was that they would reunite later, if they wanted, under Andre, and Andre… Andre wanted to come to San Francisco.”

Valentina halted the story, walking to the window and looking outside. 

“But you didn’t want him to come here?” Chloe guessed, having seen the power struggles within the SF pride for herself. 

“No,” Valentina didn’t evade the question.  “I had just lost my husband. Jasmine was barely out of diapers.  I had my Pride, and I was afraid of losing it. Losing control. having to answer to someone I didn’t know.  I stalled,” she admitted. “We coordinated the move of hundreds of families.  But the killing continued.  Andre wanted to move his family at the first opportunity.  There was only the enclave in Kiev left.  We made arrangements for about half the families.   And still, I pushed for Andre to remain until the last Mai was evacuated.”

“But he was killed before that ever happened,” Chloe said knowingly.  “Just like my family in Odessa.”

“Your family died in what was until then the largest massacre since the Nazi’s.  Alek’s family died in the massacre that eclipsed it.  Even with all the strife in the former Yugoslavia, nothing has come close to the amount of Mai killed in Kiev.” 

Valentina looked at Chloe, not hiding from her guilt or culpability. “I have to accept that my reluctance, my fear, contributed to the killing of so many. I live with that every day. I try, I try to make the best decisions I can for the Mai in my territory. To keep them safe, to keep them alive, happy, and together.  But nothing will ever make up for what I did.”

“Is that why you took Alek in? To atone?”

“Partially.  He was alone, and I had been part of why he was alone.  Mai orphans are always placed with Mai families, but Alek… he’s special, Chloe.  Alek will have his own Pride someday soon.  His father was a powerful leader that inspired his people. He was loved and respected. Revered.”

“They are full blooded,” Chloe said, recalling Alek’s words.

“Yes, very few of us can claim that.” Valentina smiled suddenly, but it didn’t displace the shadows in her eyes.  “You once described yourself as the Mai-est of the Mai. But Alek is the Mai-est of all the Mai I know.  There are some other pure blood families.  They don’t hold any position because of their bloodline, but it somehow they have all risen to power, and held it for generations,” Valentina tried to explain.

“Alphas,” Chloe murmured.

“Yes, I suppose so.” Valentina looked back at the cityscape outside her window.  “Will you tell him?”

“I think you should, but I will if you won’t. He deserves to know,” Chloe said softly.

==-Nine Lives-==

Chloe honestly couldn’t imagine a more awkward heart-to-heart talk than the one Valentina and Alek had to discuss his past and her lies of omission.  However the talk must have went well, considering that Alek was much more at ease with Valentina afterwards, and had even asked to talk to Zane, or Yulian, though Alek refused to call him by his given name. 

Chloe was glad to be able to offer Alek some relief, considering all he’d done for her.  Things between them had lost their uncomfortable edge, the distance she’d felt upon their return to San Francisco disappearing  as quickly as it had appeared. 

They’d received word that the other Prides in the US had accepted Valentina’s offer to send representatives to San Francisco to meet and get to know the Uniter.  Chloe was tense at the prospect of meeting new Mai, since she was still trying to work her way through the meet-and-greet process with the SF Mai. 

If she was honest she felt more comfortable around humans and Jackals than Mai.  She didn’t know why, and she’d been smart enough not to say it out loud, but it was a truth that was always on her mind whenever she met more than one Mai at a time. 

She wasn’t one of them, not really, and she supposed it didn’t help that her best Mai friends were also the most powerful Mai in the city, Alek and Jasmine and her mother.  Unsure how to really break the ice with other Mai, Chloe struggled.  She hoped the upcoming meeting with the Oracles would fare better.

==-Nine Lives-==

The meeting with the Oracles, descendants of Ma’at, the Goddess of Truth, was scheduled for a Friday night.  Chloe was nervous, more so because the meeting was being held at Coit Tower, at the request of the Oracles.  She couldn’t help but feel that the choice of location was an ominous warning.

Ascending the steps to the top of the tower at the designated time, Chloe felt her heart racing as a clammy sweat coated her skin, making her clothes uncomfortable.  Alek was at her side with Joe and Kiera one step behind. Valentina and several Mai elders and guards entered the upper level observatory ahead of Chloe, fanning out and maintaining a respectful distance from the dozen Oracles who were waiting for them. 

Sensing no danger from them, Chloe looked to Valentina, then Alek and finally Joe, and not seeing anything on their expressions that alarmed her, she stepped forward.  “Thank you for coming, I’m Chloe King.”

None of the Oracles moved, except for a tall woman wrapped in a long robe with copper colored hair spilling down her back in glossy waves, who tilted her head slightly to the side. Her eyes, a pale green seemed to look into Chloe’s mind, laying bare her soul.  “You are the Uniter, there can be no doubt,” the Oracle murmured.  Her soft words sent a ripple of reaction around the gathered ancients, Oracle, Mai and Jackal alike.  “I am Jessica Winters, and I am honored by your request.”

Chloe quickly introduced Valentina as the leader of the local Mai, who bowed her head as she shook the Oracle’s hand.  “Welcome to our home.”

“The road you have traveled has been filled with loss and despair,” Jessica said in a tone that was both gentle and spooky.  “Yet you were meant to be here, now, with your Uniter.  If you allow yourself to believe in her fully, the promise of peace will be enough to ease your burdens.”

Valentina met Jessica’s pale eyes, and Chloe wondered if she would ever have even half the presence that both women embodied effortlessly.  “I do believe in her,” Valentina declared. 

“Yes, I see that, but you are still stuck in the old ways.  You seek to pave the way to peace while operating in the ways of war,” Jessica said in her calm, unhurried way.  Still looking at Valentina, Jessica directed a question to Chloe. “Have the Mai and the Jackals settled their differences?” she asked, an amused lilt to her voice, as she moved to stand before Chloe once more.  “No, I see that is too much of an overreach at this time,” the Oracle declared, looking  Chloe in the eye again.  “You consider these Jackals your friends, and trust them as much as you do your own kind.” Chloe stiffened as a ripple of discontent went around the Mai, Joe and Kiera’s sudden unease easily picked up by her empathy. 

“I trust Joe and his group,” Chloe agreed, not addressing the issues she’d had with the Mai, though from Jessica’s expression she didn’t need to say it.  “Is it true you can see the truth?  That you know the past and future?”

“There will be time for that.  For now, let me see who else has come with you,” the Oracle insisted, her gaze moving to Alek. Again she spoke to Chloe, though her eyes were directed elsewhere. “Is it you or the Uniter within you that has chosen wisely in your friends and allies?”

Chloe blinked, not sure how to answer the question. “I don’t know.  How do I differentiate between who and what I am?”

The Oracle smiled, her angular face lighting up. “I suppose that is a question we all struggle with.  Any with power, with positions of leadership and obligation, struggle to define who we are verses what we are and what we must do.”  Finally she moved her gaze from Alek back to Chloe, smiling softly.  “Destiny has decreed that you are the Uniter, but your success is not guaranteed.  You were born and you are as the prophesy foretold, but the path to peace is not laid before you, waiting to be discovered.  If we are to have peace you must make your own path, Chloe King.  We Oracles are gifted, and cursed, with divine vision, able to see others’ fates, but never our own.  Your gifts and limitations are similar, but your intentions are genuine. You are the Uniter, and with you, there is a chance for peace for all of us.”

==-Nine Lives-==

The meeting with the Oracles ended when Jessica declared herself tired after meeting each of the Mai and Jackal attendees individually, but Chloe was heartened when the seer suggested that they meet again, saying that they would be in contact. 

Heading back to Valentina’s penthouse with Alek and Jasmine, Chloe was in good spirits.  “That went… well. At least, I think it went well.”

“I’m not sure all the Mai would agree, but she confirmed you are the Uniter and accepted you as such so that is good,” Alek agreed.

“I know that Oracles aren’t supposed to be good fighters, but that woman scared me,” Jasmine said with a small shudder. “Her eyes…”

“Who knew having your mind read would feel physical,” Chloe said lightly.

“You felt it too?” Jasmine asked and both Chloe and Alek nodded.  “She was fairly cryptic.”

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed with a laugh, as they entered the security doors into the ground floor lobby.  Alek pushed the button for the elevator, entering the code to unlock it.  The door from the internal staircase opened and several people came down, a family from the looks of it.  Chloe frowned as Jasmine suddenly went stiff, sending an awkward smile at the teenage boy who exited the stairs after his mother, father and sister. 

“Hey Jasmine,” he greeted the dark haired girl, his lips curving up but the smile was forced and didn’t reach his eyes.

“James,” Jasmine greeted.

Chloe watched with a frown as Jasmine’s complexion paled. 

#  _Previously…_

Chloe questioned why Jasmine didn’t have any human friends, calling Jasmine the hot girl at school who didn’t talk to anyone. 

“It’s hard to get close to people when you have to hide so much of yourself,” the dark haired girl explained. “When I was 12 I fell in love with a boy who lived on the third floor. As we got older the feelings only got stronger.”

“What happened?”

“I started to transform. There didn’t seem to be any options.”

Chloe frowned, a V forming between her eyebrows. “What happened to him?”

“Nothing, he still lives on the third floor.”

“You could be friends,” Chloe offered in supplication.

“You can’t be friends with someone you’re in love with,” Jasmine denied.  “It just wouldn’t work.”

#  _Present day…_

The family exited the building and Chloe turned to Jasmine to ask about James, but Jasmine’s downtrodden look dissuaded her. 

“Well,” Chloe said with forced cheerfulness. “I hope the Oracles contact us soon.”

“I think I could use a few days to recover.  Having someone else look around my memories is not my idea of fun,” Alek said briskly. 

They boarded the elevator, shooting upwards to the uppermost floor quickly.  As soon as the elevator doors slid open Chloe’s head shot up, her expression watchful.

“What is it?” Alek asked, stepping closer to her, his hand circling her wrist. 

“I think your few days just got shortened to a few minutes,” Chloe said. 

Jasmine and Alek both looked at the door to their apartment wondering how their home was breached again. 

“How many?” Alek asked at the same time that Jasmine spoke.

“What do they want?”

“Three, I think, and I don’t sense anything bad…” Chloe said hesitantly.  Trusting her empathy with her life and the lives of her friends was stressful. 

“Should we wait for my mom or go in?” Jasmine asked.

“Go in,” Alek and Chloe spoke simultaneously, earning an arch look from his cousin. 

They pushed open the door, Alek in front and Jasmine in back, giving Chloe the most protected position in the procession.  Inside three Oracles, including Jessica, stood at the windows, facing the door.  “I am sorry to invade your home uninvited,” she said with an inclination of her head.  “I felt that a conversation with fewer observers might be prudent.”

Chloe frowned, not moving forward.  She still sensed only curiosity and a faint bit of hope, from Jessica, but the two behind her were jittery, their emotions sharp and unsettled. “Are robes your traditional dress, or just for show?” Chloe asked, eying the newcomers warily. They might not be good fighters, but guns would go a long way to evening the playing field.

“We are unarmed,” Jessica reassured them.  “In a fight, Mai would defeat Oracles nine times out of ten.”  She shrugged off her robe, revealing a tribal print dress that fell to her knees.  “The risk in coming here is ours.  Not only are we outmatched, but we have come into your home, uninvited.”

Jasmine slowly shifted out of her defensive pose, but Alek remained tense.  “Why chance it?” Jasmine asked.

“As I said before we have the gift of truth. And I felt it prudent for Chloe to know that some of those close to her do not wish her well in her journey.”  Chloe didn’t shift, didn’t look to either Jasmine or Alek with any suspicion.  She trusted them with her life.  Or lives as the case may be. 

“As I said before your instincts are good, but your empathy is limited to non-Mai, leaving you a blind spot,” Jessica explained.  “Won’t you sit down and talk?  I believe Valentina will be here soon.”

“Can we trust her?” Alek asked, uncertainty making his tone waiver.  He ignored the shocked look from Jasmine. 

“As I said, she is still locked into the ways of the past, but yes, in her way she will support the Uniter to the fullness of her ability.”

Chloe shifted to Alek’s side, and touched his arm.  “It’s OK.”

Chloe sat on the couch by Jasmine, Alek perched on the arm rest next to her, while Jessica curled her legs under her in an arm chair, her two companions flanking her.  “You asked for us to make the journey to meet you so that you could use our ability to validate your position,” she stated.

“Yes,” Chloe confirmed.

“Then I hope you will be open to using the insight I offer in an expanded capacity,” Jessica said. “There are those among the Mai that do not want you to succeed.  At least not with the other races.”

“I know,” Chloe said simply.  “Most Mai thought the Uniter would come just for the Mai, to unite the prides, but that is not what I have felt compelled to do,” Chloe said softly.

“There are not many of us left in this world,” Jessica said.  “Our numbers are small, but in the time with the gods and goddesses were still revered, we were considered neutral, above conflict or untouched by it. We were often the arbitrators of peace and treaties in the past.  It has been a long time since we occupied that role, but I find myself _compelled_ to offer just that,” she sighed. “You are only a few years older than my own daughter.  I find it difficult to support the idea that you must bear this burden, yet there is no denying that you are the Uniter.”

“Do you really see the future?” Chloe asked.

“Yes, but there is no one future,” Jessica explained.  “If there was destiny would be a book written in stone.   Many possible futures lie before each of us, and which we bring to fruition is based on our choices.”

“Free will,” Alek murmured.

“Yes.  The Gods would have liked the ability to dictate our behavior, but free will is the right of all living things.”

Valentina pushed open the door and paused looking at the Oracles in surprise.  “Welcome, I had not expected to see you, but can see that I was shortsighted in that regard.”

“I apologize for invading your home. I am unsure of how long we will remain here and wanted to see Chloe again,” Jessica explained.  “If it helps, I will tell you how we got in, and you can secure your home against any other unwanted visitors.”

“Friends are never unwanted in this home,” Valentina declared.  “Would you like some tea? I see that none of my children saw fit to offer you any refreshment.”

Jessica smiled. “That would be lovely.  And your children are quite a testament to who you are and what future you want for the Mai.”

Valentina made tea and as it was served, the two other Oracles finally relaxed, taking off their robes to reveal two other women, one younger, one older. “Please allow me to introduce my sister and my daughter,” Jessica said.  “Our gift, the vision, is only passed on to females of our line.”

“I didn’t know that,” Valentina said. 

“We have not interacted with the Mai in over a millennia.  I assume there is much we have to learn from each other.  Chloe has said that her first step in bringing peace is to get to know the other races.  That is wise.”

“You…”

“Saw your memories.  And the Jackal’s.  As I said,” she intoned softly as her eyes drifted to Alek, “you are wise in your choice of friends.  And that is why I came.  Chloe has surrounded herself with people who will face down death for her, but there are those near you, Valentina, who would stand in her way.”

#  _Present day…_

Still reeling from the definitive declaration of how many of the Mai were for and against her in her own Pride, Chloe sat on Jasmine’s bed as her dark haired friend changed into more comfortable clothes. 

“That was…” Jasmine said, her expression stunned.

“Let’s talk about something else,” Chloe said quickly.

“OK.”

“Like maybe… James?” Chloe suggested, seeing Jasmine’s expression tighten just at the mention of the boy.  “He’s the boy from the third floor, the one you said you loved… right?”

“I don’t see the point in talking about this.”

“The point is that  the curse is lifted, if you want… I mean, I don’t know if you still have feelings for him or not, but there is nothing stopping you now,” Chloe said, wanting her friend to be happy.

“No,” Jasmine said with a quick shake of her head.  “I mean, I do, but there is so much going on… Now really isn’t-“

“Jaz, look, I get it.  With your mom, and Zane and you know, being stabbed… but that’s kinda the point.  There is a lot going on, and we could all… we might not be here…” Chloe babbled.

“Life is short, I get it,” Jasmine said with a nod.  “I’ll consider it.”

“I just want you to be happy Jasmine, you deserve it,” Chloe said with an emotional smile. “And think of it this way,” she said with an awkward shrug. “If my being born broke the curse, then Mai are supposed to be closer to humans than they have been. Maybe that’s part of the solution.”

“The solution?”

“Yeah, how we’re supposed to come together.”

Jasmine smiled and shook her head. “Slow down girlfriend, just because Alek sleeps in your bed every night, doesn’t mean I’m looking to come together with anyone right now.” Jasmine laughed as Chloe blushed.

“It’s not like that,” she insisted, her big blue eyes filling with emotions. “We just sleep.”

“Uh-huh. So there’s no cuddling?” Jasmine teased, seeing Chloe’s blush darken. 

==-Nine Lives-==

#  _Present day…_

That night Chloe considered her advice to Jasmine.  She’d been avoiding anything resembling a relationship talk with Alek, but realized that she was going to have to be the one to broach the subject.

Part of Chloe’s mistrust of Alek stemmed from their history.  Thinking that might be a safe place to start, she bit the bullet later that night while Alek was lying on her bed playing with his phone.   “Alek… when I first got to high school… you used to talk to me,” she smiled shyly. 

#  _Previously…_

A younger Chloe was sitting near the back of class.  She was tapping her pencil as she stared out the window, her mind clearly elsewhere.  Her cell phone vibrated. It simply said ‘157’ making her frown.  She looked at the number the text came from, but didn’t recognize it.

Suddenly Chloe heard her name. “Miss King? The answer, please,” Mr. Reinhardt, a math teacher, asked impatiently.

Chloe frowned, her eyes darting to her phone.  “Ah, 157?”

The teacher, slightly annoyed, turned back to the board as Chloe scanned the room. Alek looked back at her from the front row and held up his phone.

After class, Chloe was at her locker, squatting down to get to the bottom locker that was the bane of her existence, when Alek approached her, a smirk firmly in place on his handsome face.  “You’re welcome.”

Chloe flushed, but smiled happily rising to her feet.  “Thanks. I owe you.

Alek grinned and she felt a nervous flutter in her stomach.  He was a year ahead of her, a popular jock, and looked like the consummate bad boy designed to draw helpless girls into his rebellious web. Rumor had it he had failed to show up for his freshman year math final and had not attended summer school despite the school saying that he had to, which is how he had ended up in the same math class as Chloe. 

“I look forward to collecting,” he replied.

#  _Present day…_

 “I was a funny Freshman, you were a Sophomore jock… but we were... well, if not friends then friendly...then one day you just stopped.”

“I realized it was a bad idea,” he said his face and tone revealing nothing, as he stood up and walked towards the window looking out into the darkness before turning to look at her.

“So you stopped talking to me because…” She looked up at him, but he just stared at her with a bland mask in place. “I mean, you still have human friends, so why did you stop being my friend?”

#  _Previously…_

“You can’t be friends with someone you’re in love with,” Jasmine denied.  “It just wouldn’t work.”

#  _Present day…_

Alek looked out her window, his face hardening.  “Maybe I realized you were just a silly girl who didn’t know her own mind.” Chloe bit her lip and turned away disheartened that he still didn’t want to hear her apologies or explanations, and not knowing what else to say. After a minute of silence, Alek glanced at her and his expression softened.  “There was something about you.  It just always drew me in… maybe I knew you were Mai or the Uniter or…” he broke off.  “I watched you to see if you would transition.”

“That day with your basketball…” she said remembering how he’d suddenly been in her face later that day, almost kissing her.  “And you almost kissed me…”

He smiled, his eyes suddenly bright with teasing.  “You were Mai, I knew it.”

“You couldn’t have been sure.”

“I was sure,” he said with finality.

"I know I hurt you… before, I never meant... You were cocky, and I thought that meant you were... well, anyway," she said with a grimace, "I was careless of your feelings because I was never sure that you had any that could be hurt. I was wrong, and I am sorry. You didn't deserve that from me."

"You were very clear with me," he said, letting her off the hook. "You never led me to believe I was anything other than your unwanted protector at worst, your friend at best. I wanted... but you never-"

"You are my friend, Alek. A very good, important friend.  I hope you know that.  I see you now, better than I did before."

He stared at her, his expression serious as he studied her face.  Chloe held up under his gaze, looking back at him directly. 

“I think I’m still learning who you are,” he said slowly.  “Answer a question for me?” he asked rhetorically since he launched into the question without waiting for a response. “What would you have done if Curt had been elected the Pride leader? If Valentina hadn’t been given the antidote by the human?”

“What do you mean?” she stalled.

“You know what I mean,” he insisted, stepping closer to her, invading her personal space as was his habit.

“I would have changed his mind. About me, the role of the Uniter, the other races.”

A V formed between his eyebrows as he considered her possibility of success.  “And if that hadn’t worked?” Chloe swallowed and looked away from him. “Chloe?”

“I would have had to leave, find a pride that would accept me and my super important destiny,” she mocked herself, trying to lighten the sudden tension in the room.

“And what about me?” he asked, stepping closer to her and lifting her chin so she had to meet his gaze.   Her blue eyes skittered over his, then down to his shoulder, seeing the steady rhythm of his pulse in his neck.  “Chloe. Answer me.”

She wet suddenly dry lips, then looked up reluctantly. “I would have asked you to come with me,” she said quietly, before rushing to continue. “But I would have understood if you said no.”

He nodded, capturing one of her long pig tails between his thumb and forefinger, stroking the silky length of hair.  “I thought we were both clear on that point.  Where you go, I go.” 

Chloe nodded, grateful for his continued support, but knowing that their lives were about to change again.  Alek was a senior. He was going to graduate in a few weeks, and Chloe didn’t know what to do or say. The selfish part of her wanted him to stay in San Francisco.  Stay with her. The part of her that wanted what was best for him knew that leaving would give him a better chance to stay alive.  She knew from Jasmine that he’d applied for schools in California, the east coast and abroad.

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 4996


	8. Chapter 8

#  Chapter 8

Valentina and the other Mai elders were busy in the days that followed, finding suitable lodging for the visiting Mai. A house was found in Chloe's neighborhood with several of the newly arrived Mai taking up residence together. Valentina's idea to help introduce Chloe to the various Mai Prides around the world was to invite several of them to send a few Mai to stay in San Francisco. The various representatives would then get the chance to know the Uniter and report back to their Prides.

It was as good a plan as any, but Chloe was still nervous. Valentina had given the few Mai from her Pride who doubted Chloe and wanted to work against her the choice to get on board or leave the city and find a new Pride elsewhere. Most had chosen to stay, but a few had left, and they had not gone quietly. Curt had initially chosen to stay, no doubt hoping to find an opportunity to become the pride patriarch, but Valentenia had made it clear that he would never ever have the opportunity to move up in her pride. He had left the next day.

"I hope this is a better experience than the last time," Chloe said in trepidation, recalling Lilah and Nikki's ill-fated visit.

"You already have the support of two Prides," Valentina said absently, looking down at a stack of papers on her desk.

"Two?" Jasmine asked in confusion.

"Ours and Alek's." Jasmine looked to Alek who continued to eat his sandwich at the kitchen island, not reacting in a least to Valentina's words. "It was always the intent to unite the Eastern European Pride again. Alek is an adult now, albeit a young adult, and given the timing, it might be fortuitous for him to put the call out to his clan."

Chloe and Jasmine shared a concerned look. "Where would they live?" Jasmine asked, not wanting to lose her friend, partner and brother/cousin.

"Anywhere I suppose," Valentina said as if it was of little concern to her. "That would be up to Alek. As would the timing."

Chloe's eyes focused on boy in question. "Alek?" Chloe knew that uniting the pride under Alek's leadership was the plan, but the idea of it happening now had not been mentioned to her by Alek or Valentina.

"I'm not going anywhere. Chloe has another year of school left, and as I'm sure she will be stubborn and insist on completing four years like every other human, I have some time," Alek stated, setting Chloe's mind to rest.

"You could bring them here," Valentina offered, her tone casual. "At least offer that as an option to those Mai who want to reunite."

"Who would want to move after all this time?" Alek inquired lightly.

Valentina looked at Alek, her gaze as serious as ever. "My offer to have representatives of the other Prides make an extended visit has met with overwhelming response. I take it from some of these messages that many members of your pride are interested in coming."

It had also been clear in the messages that while the Eastern European Mai had made homes for themselves in other prides, many were ready, even eager to reform into their old pride. Valentina had hinted at the messages to Alek, knowing he was smart enough to understand it, but she hadn't wanted to add any more pressure to his shoulders. He'd already taken on the primary responsibility for keeping Chloe, the Uniter, safe. Alek hadn't jumped at the opportunity to reunite his ancestral pride, nor had he asked to see the messages for himself.

"But considering that you are of age now," she left unsaid that all the Pride leaders expected him to call his pride back together sooner rather than later, "the Pride leaders have opted to send representatives that are from their own clans." Valentina nodded to the boy she'd raised since she'd found him on the streets of London as a dirty 13 year old. "It is your choice Alek, your call to make. If you want them to come, at least those who want to make the move now, we can make that happen."

Alek frowned. Unsure if he was ready to accept the leadership that should have still been his father's. Or his brother's. "I'll consider it," he said stiffly. "Thank you."

"Mistakes were made. Lives lost. Perhaps Chloe's coming is a sign that the time has come to set aside pride politics," she said. "Chloe would be better protected by a stronger Pride, perhaps two Prides." She turned back to her letters. "It is something to consider."

Chloe looked from Valentina to Alek, her gaze intent. She didn't know what decision he would make, didn't know if she was playing into his decision one way or the other. Alek had indicated his intention to stay with her, near her, for the duration, but she didn't want him to choose her over the wellbeing of so many others.

Chloe felt Jasmine's eyes on her and looked down, recalling that just months before, in the days leading into her 16th birthday her biggest concern had been the when, how, and who of her first kiss. Now her life was full of danger, politics, and decisions that affected thousands, possibly millions if you counted the generations to come.

"If you did call them back together, here," Jasmine said with soft confidence, "you might find some distant relatives in the bunch. Chloe too."

Chloe's eyebrows drew together. She hadn't considered that. Valentina had decided against having Chloe's genetics run and compared against other Mai. Finding family members could only complicated Chloe's life further and neither Valentina nor Chloe was ready to take that step. Not yet.

==-Nine Lives-==

Lying in bed that night, Chloe couldn't sleep. So much was happening, so fast. She'd wanted to push forward, start her work as the Uniter, but she wasn't oblivious to the danger. Chloe turned onto her side, comforted by Alek's solid form next to her. She was pretty sure her mom knew Alek slept over sometimes, but had no idea how often or that he often slept next to Chloe in her bed. "Are you asleep?" she whispered softly.

"No," he said opening his eyes and turning his head on the pillow to face her. "Just thinking."

"Me too. I can't seem to stop thinking. Do you want to talk about it?"

"What?"

"Whatever is keeping you awake." Alek didn't reply, just looked into her eyes, their enhanced night vision allowing each to see the other's expressions clearly in the dark room. "Alek?"

"Just… thinking."

Chloe bit her lip, her eyebrows drawing together slightly. Alek reached out to brush his finger over the small V that formed and then trailed his fingers over her cheek. "What about you? Do you want to talk?"

She nibbled on her lip, making him remember how soft her lips had been, and that it had been awhile since he'd kissed her.

"I don't know how to say this."

"Just say it," he instructed, his eyebrows rising as he realized her unease was related to him.

"I don't want to start a fight, but I do want to talk about it, and I would take a fight over you just shutting down this topic," Chloe said in a rush.

Alek regarded her silently for a long moment then nodded. "What topic?"

"Your Pride." His lips quirked and Chloe deflated imagining him diverting her from her target with some teasing comment about his ego and arrogance. "Please, this is serious."

"I know," he agreed, much to her relief. "I… what do you want to know?"

Chloe frowned, she wanted to know what he wanted, what he planned, how would it work, where would they go, everything. She wanted to know if he'd ask her to join his pride. If he could still be her protector if he had his own pride. She wanted to know where they stood. But she'd promised herself to give him time. And Valentina had obviously been trying to let Alek know his options without pressuring him.

"Are you going to call them back together?" she started with the most obvious question.

"I'm considering it. In a limited capacity." Chloe stayed silent this time, her big blue eyes silently asking him to continue. "I think before I put out a general call, I should see if any of the old council want to come. See what they think. I can't do it alone."

"I could-"

"You're busy, you're going to be busy for a long time," he interrupted.

"But bringing together the Mai is what I'm supposed to do," she countered.

He nodded, accepting her argument, but was clearly unswayed. "You're busy, and I'm busy with you, and I don't think that either of us want to get more involved with Mai politics than we already are."

"But they're your pride," she said softly. "Our pride."

Alek's expression shifted at her calling it their pride, a sudden intensity that sharpened her senses. "Our pride?"

"I was born into it, it's my ancestral pride too," she explained. "Not in the same way that it's your pride obviously. But…" she shrugged one shoulder.

Alek turned his head looking up at the ceiling, his thoughts racing. "Calling more Mai into San Francisco could strengthen our position here," he mused. "But only if Valentina is truly open to having them, and only if they are willing to get behind you as the Uniter."

"I don't want you to make this decision because it's best for me. Or worst for me. Or anything about me," she rambled. "It's your pride, your life, your choice. If you want to call them together because it's what you want, or what you need to do, or because it's best for them, then that's your call," she said insistently. Alek turned on the bed, wanting to see her face fully. Her words were full of passion, this was clearly what had been keeping her awake. "I want you here with me, helping me, standing at my side, but I don't want to take away…" she trailed off, suddenly flustered.

"Take away what?" he asked, wanting to be clear.

"I don't want…" she breathed out deeply, their breath mingled. "I don't want you to resent me."

Alek frowned. "Why would I resent you?"

"Giving up… stuff for me. To be with me, protect me."

"Stuff like…?" he prompted her and Chloe frowned, feeling pressured to say out loud what she didn't want to. For someone who didn't talk about himself much, Alek was very good at making her talk.

"College," she burst out. "I know you can go to a college here, but it's not the same as leaving home, and Jasmine said…"

"What did Jasmine say?" Alek asked in an annoyed tone.

"Jasmine said that you had applied to several east coast schools, even some abroad. But you're staying here, at least for now, for-"

"You. For you. That's my choice Chloe," he said, reaching out and squeezing her arm lightly. "I made it, free and clear, so stop worrying. The only thing I'm likely to resent is not getting any sleep. Now close your eyes," he ordered, tugging on her arm so she would shift closer to him, sharing their body heat.

After a minute he felt the tension in her body ease, and she relaxed against him, shifting to get comfortable, pressed against his side.

"Alek?" she asked softly after a few more minutes had passed. He sighed deeply, tilting his head to look down at her once more. "A pride is like a family, right? A big, extended family? Don't you want to have your family again?" she asked earnestly.

Alek laid his head back on the pillow his arm that was curled under her, rising to stroke down her back, feeling the silky coolness of her hair shift through his fingers. "If I try to bring them together too soon and fail, I don't think I'll get a second chance. And I am considering you in all this, Chloe. I have to. Having a second, strong, well organized Pride stand with you would help, but a volatile pride? No, we don't need that. This needs to be done right, and for me, that means slowly, carefully, and methodically. It's a lot of responsibility, and I need to be sure I'm ready and that the pride is ready before I act."

His words eased her mind a bit. She didn't want to dominate his life decisions, but if he had other reasons for waiting that didn't revolve around her, she could accept that. "Alek?" she asked once more, making him smile.

"Yeah?"

"I just want you to know. I'm ready. Whenever you're ready, I'm ready."

Alek's hand stilled on her back for a moment as her words, and their possible double meaning, penetrated his mind, then he started up the repetitive motion again, soothing her to sleep, hopefully for the remainder of the night with no bad dreams to interrupt their rest.

==-Nine Lives-==

The following Monday the school was buzzing about five new students. Supposedly they were exchange students who would be completing the remainder of the year in SF. Chloe knew better, though exchange students was a good cover. Several of the visiting Mai representatives had sent pride council members with teenage children. Chloe hadn't met most of them yet, only the New York Pride's council member, her husband and two daughters. Chloe had been wary. As had Valentina, Alek and Jasmine. After Zane/Yulien none of them were too keen on the east coast pride.

Chloe was even less so after watching the two teenage girls blatantly flirt with Alek. Unhappy with the sudden surge of jealously, Chloe turned her back on the merry threesome and focused on the girls' parents.

"So this is the Uniter. So young," the female council member said. "Though I suppose we would have all liked to have found you younger."

Chloe frowned unsure of her meaning, but before she could ask Valentina spoke. "Chloe's transition was very quick, just a few days from beginning to end."

"Remarkable."

"It must have been Bastet's plan all along, to hide her from danger," Valentina concluded. The adults continued talking, but Chloe was no longer paying attention. Had it been Bastet's plan? If so then that meant the Chloe's birth parents were always meant to die. For her to hide as a human until she turned 16, she would have to be living with humans. The thought saddened her, and made her long to remember them, to have something, anything from them, even a picture. Not only did she not remember their faces, she didn't even know their names. Any photos, records were lost in the fire.

Suddenly anxious to be alone, Chloe excused herself and walked to the balcony overlooking the city. A crisp spring breeze chilled her skin and whipped her hair into knots, but Chloe ignored it, the need to run, to be free and unconstrained tugging at her senses.

The worst part about being the Uniter was being trapped by her own destiny. She didn't have a choice. Not really. Not one she could make in good conscience. She had a destiny, and her destiny was death.

"Chloe?" she heard Alek call for her as the large glass door slide open quietly. "You OK?"

"I think we should train tonight," she said abruptly.

"Anything in particular?"

"Running. I need to run."

Alek approached her, standing at her side, studying her face. "We can do that. Want to tell me what's bothering you?"

"I don't remember them. Not their faces, their names. My name," she said plaintively turning her head to look at him. "Did they know I was the Uniter? Did they suspect? Did I have a brother or sister? Or was I always destined to be alone?"

"You're not alone," he said resolutely.

"No, I know, I-"

"I know what you mean. I know how it feels to lose so much."

"We both lost our families. You remember, I don't. Jasmine lost her father, Valentina her husband. My dad. Brian's mom. So many others. Too many." She straightened her shoulders looking back over the city below. "We have to succeed Alek. We have to."

"We will."

==-Nine Lives-==

The following day, Chloe was walking down the hall with Paul and Amy, laughing at one of Paul's stories about his overachieving cousins, when she almost ran into a guy exiting the biology lab. "Oh, sorry," Chloe apologized, smiling automatically.

"My fault," the guy, one of the newcomers said in a deep tone softened by an indecipherable accent. "I'm Kamuzu."

"Chloe," she introduced herself needlessly. "And these are my friends Amy and Paul."

Amy was looking from Chloe to Kamuzu, her face lit up with a question mark. Chloe forced an awkward smile. "So, is nobody here gong to say it?" Paul asked.

"Say what?" Chloe asked with false brightness. "That we're late so we'd better run-"

"The last bell already rang, so no, but good try," Amy interrupted. "What I think Paul meant, is that Kamuzu," she struggled to pronounce his name, "whatever, here is Mai, we're humans, and-"

"And she's the Uniter. If I'd been told that you were so lovely, I would have come sooner," Kamuzu said with a smile at Chloe. "Hello human friends, nice to meet you, please call me Kam," he said extending his hand to both Paul and Amy, clearly bemused with the idea of human friends. "Now, Chloe, if you're not doing anything maybe we could-"

"Where's Alek?" Amy said loudly, not caring if she interrupted the new Mai guy or not.

"Right here," Alek said appearing behind Chloe, making her jolt.

"Petrov," Kam greeted him with a shark-like smile, very different from the blatantly seductive one he'd been giving Chloe.

"Aubakar," Alek greeted tightly.

"Abu-what?" Amy said with a crazy look.

"Aubakar. It means noble, as if from a noble family."

"Sorry, not impressed," Amy said blithely. "All the Mai we meet are from noble families."

Paul nodded quickly, feeling the tension between Alek and the new Mai. "Yeah, Alek, Jasmine, Valentina, and Chloe, probably should have started with Chloe."

"We should go," Amy said quickly, motioning for Chloe to call her later even as she grabbed Paul's hand and drug him away.

Chloe swallowed thickly, looking up at the boy on either side of her. "Do you know each other?"

"We've met," Alek said shortly.

"I'm more interested in getting to know you better, Chloe," Kam declared, stepping closer to her.

Chloe immediately retreated, stepping backwards into Alek's side. "Oh, um…" she predicated, trying to find an excuse that would hold up.

"That is why I came, after all, to get to know you."

"Right, but… my mom is expecting me home. Family dinner," she said, smiling brightly, trying to ignore the way Alek's hand was resting on her hips, a few of his fingers touching the skin that showed between her shirt and pants.

"Another time, then. Perhaps you could join my father and I for a family dinner." Ignoring Alek, he took Chloe's hand in his and raised it to his lips. "After all, I am new to your city, it would only be hospitable to share a meal together." Chloe didn't know how to respond, unsure of how to proceed. She wanted to say no, he came on entirely too strong for her liking, but politically knowing she needed have interaction with the Mai to get to know them, and for them to get to know her. "I can't think of a more enjoyable to spend the night, than with our lovely Uniter," Kam flirted outrageously.

Chloe's mouth opened in a gasp as Alek's claws suddenly shot out scratching her stomach. Twisting her head to look up at him, she saw the apology in his brown eyes. Placing her hands over his she squeezed lightly, jolting again when one of his claws pierced her skin. Alek tried to draw back but Chloe held his hands tighter, keeping him close despite the sting.

"She'll get back to you," Alek bit out roughly.

"No, I won't," Chloe disagreed. "I do want to get to know you, but not if you're going to act like this. This is not a game. Lives are at stake. If you can't be honest and sincere-"

"And respectful," Alek inserted, his claws drawing back as Chloe rebuked the forward boy.

"And respectful," Chloe agreed, "then you might as well go home."

"I apologize. I was not informed that you were…" he trailed off, his gaze on Alek. "My mistake. It's a character flaw, when I see a beautiful woman, I react. I'm sure Petrov can understand that."

Chloe was still unsure about Kam, but once he dropped the seduction routine he seemed sincere enough. Born in Egypt, his father had moved him to Paris after Kam's mother and sister were killed by The Order. "I've heard that you are very forgiving when it comes to the other races," he said alluding to her friendship with the Jackals, "I hope you can extend that same compassion to me." He smiled, and this time it reached his eyes. "I promise to make a better second impression."

Chloe nodded. "I think I can do that. And dinner might be a good idea after all. For all the younger Mai in San Francisco, old and new, maybe something outside in the park," she suggested, thinking out loud.

"My first American picnic," Kam said happily. "Perhaps some of the barbeque that I have heard so much about."

==-Nine Lives-==

That night Alek sat on Chloe's bed and using her hand to pull her closer, lifted her shirt to look at the scratches.

"It's fine, Alek, just a scratch," Chloe said breathily, as goose bumps erupted all over her stomach and arms as he ran his fingers over the reddened skin.

"He thinks we're together," Alek said softly. Chloe nodded, meeting his chocolate brown eyes for a long moment before looking away. Alek's intensity still scared her. But he drew her in like no one else. "I can tell him we're not," he offered eyes still locked on her face.

"No," she said quickly, glancing up. "Don't. Unless you want to. It… it doesn't bother me."

"Chloe King, are you saying that you… like me?" Alek teased with his old cockiness in full evidence. He stood up, his hands resting on her waist.

"I've been trying to say… something… for awhile now, but you didn't seem to want to hear it," Chloe said hesitantly.

"Something? Any old something?" he said with a smile. "Or something in particular?" he continued, his British accent making the words sound posh and proper.

"You know-" she started, but was cut off by his lips pressing against hers.

Chloe's stomach fell like she'd just gone over the big drop on a roller coaster, but Alek's arms were there to hold her steady. Hesitantly her hands slid up his biceps, coming to rest on his shoulders, as he pulled her closer, wrapping one of his arms around her back, keeping her tight against him, while the other cupped the back of her head, his fingers tangling with the loose curls at the nape of her neck.

Chloe leaned into him, opening her mouth for his tongue, savoring the taste of him. His lips were firm, but moved over hers with a deliberate softness that made her want more.

Their last kiss had been at the Jackal camp, when Chloe was hoping that Alek still cared about her as more than a friend and the Uniter. He'd kissed her several times now, but for all his cocky come on's early on he'd still never declared any actual feelings for her. Pushing away her worries, Chloe let herself get swept away in the feel of him, enjoying the moment for what it was, leaving the questions to be asked and hopefully answered in the future.

When Alek finally drew back Chloe felt like her bones were made of fluid. He stroked his fingers over her cheek softly, then traced the shape of her wide mouth.

"Kam was right about one thing. You are beautiful," Alek said huskily.

"I don't want to talk about Kam," Chloe said, shaking her head lightly side to side.

"What do you want to talk about?" Alek asked.

Chloe smiled softly, pushing her fingers into the floppy hair over his forehead, combing it back, something she'd wanted to do for a long time. "I don't want to talk," she announced, rising on her toes to press her lips against his firmly.

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 4114


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recap: Following the events of Beautiful Day (with some changes), Chloe elects to leave town rather than be a target or a prisoner. With Valentina in the hospital and Jasmine recovering Chloe and Alek head north, both dealing with unsettling revelations, trust issues and an uncertain future. With their relationship somewhat healed, they return to SF with new friends (a group of Jackals) not far behind. Chloe begins to make her destiny, bringing the Oracles into her coalition of ancient races, and trying to earn support from the various Mai prides. She and Alek take fitful steps to figure out what their relationship is as both begin to embrace their birthrights.

**_Chapter 9_ **

A few nights later Chloe returned from a grocery shopping trip with her mom to find several red roses tied together with a ribbon lying on her window seat. She smiled softly, knowing that the roses were from Alek, this being the second time he’d left her roses in her room as a gift. 

**_Previously…_ **

Chloe entered her room and noticed three roses, in shades of orange, yellow and pink, resting on her desk.  Picking up one rose gently, she smelled it, Alek appearing in her doorway behind her. 

“Careful,” he advised, startling her and making her prick her finger on a thorn. “The more beautiful things are, the more prickly they can be.”  She flushed and he grinned. “I was talking about me.”

“Yeah. Got that,” she laughed, rushing over to close her door. “Thank you and now go. If my mom, who is downstairs, catches you in here again-“

“Oh please, your mom loves me,” he said cockily.

“Which is why I'll be the one in trouble,” Chloe bantered back.

Alek sat down on her bed, clearly not planning on leaving anytime soon.  “You said you wanted me to start over. This is me doing that.”

Chloe smiled softly. “Did you take those from my neighbor's yard?”

“If you mean the one with the very big dog, yes, I did,” he admitted, making her giggle.

He asked her about Brian again, and she’d reassured him that Brian was just her friend.  Chloe had tried to explain that she was helping the human boy with some family stuff, and that he was part of her life, which Alek would have to accept, but Alek brushed aside the topic.

“What do you think about seeing a movie sometime? Like tomorrow night?” he asked, his first forthright date request.

“That would be great, but we have this dinner thing tomorrow, so…” Chloe said anxiously.  “Could we please talk about this later? You've got to go. My mom is-“

“Chloe?” Meredith called, pushing open her daughter’s door.

“Uh hey, Mom, did you need something?” Chloe asked nervously, eyes darting around the room, wondering where Alek had hid himself.

“Yeah, towels. I need to do the ones in the guest bath.”

Meredith moved towards the bathroom door, but Chloe leaped in front of her.  “Oh… Oh! I'll get them,” she said with forced laughter.  She expected to find Alek in the bathroom but he wasn’t there.

Exiting with the needed towels she looked at her bedroom window, wondering if he’d made it outside, but instead saw him lying on the floor by her bed, reading her journal, just feet from her mother.

Unable to get it away from him without alerting her mom to his presence, she gritted her teeth as she sat down to chat with her mom giving Alek plenty of time to read her innermost thoughts despite trying to thwart him by throwing the towels over his head.

**_Present day…_ **

“These are for me?” she asked softly, knowing he’d entered her room.

“Who else would they be for?” he asked cockily.

“Well, I didn’t want to assume,” Chloe said with a smile, looking at the rich velvety color of the long stemmed roses. “I should get a vase.” She walked towards her door, looking up at him where he stood in the doorway.  “Thanks. They’re beautiful.”

He looked down at her, raising his hand to cup her cheek softly.  “So are you.”

Her stomach trembled in anticipation, but he continued to stroke her cheek and neck ramping up her nervous tension. “Are you fishing for a compliment?”

“Nah, I know I’m handsome.  Plenty of people tell me that every day.”

“People? Not just girls,” she laughed, despite a vague gnawing jealously.

“What can I say, I’m universally attractive,” he teased.

Chloe shook her head, but was smiling when he finally kissed her. 

==-Nine Lives-==

Outside her office downtown, Valentina exited the glass building that housed the import/export business that she ran.  Having Mai contacts all over the world was not only a political strength but a financial one for Valentina.  Waving off her driver, she walked down the wide sidewalks of the Market District towards the corner deli that she frequented.  Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her Hermes bag, smiling as she saw the message from Jasmine that she and Alek would be eating dinner at Chloe’s house that night so there was no need for Valentina to hurry home. 

Slipping the phone back into her bag she gave no indication that she was aware of the broad shouldered man who was following her. Just as she had given no indication that she was aware of his presence for the past three days.  He was good, but she was better.  Not only did her hearing alert her to a steady set of footfalls in her wake, but his scent was distinctive too.  It was not likely that she would forget it.  It was the same scent as the man who had taken out her guards at the hospital, injected her with an antidote, waking her from a coma to calmly inform her that the Order was no longer a threat to her, Chloe, or any Mai in San Francisco as long as Chloe turned out to be a Uniter set on earning peace with all races, including the humans. 

Entering the deli, Valentina smiled regally at the barista and took a seat by the windows at a table for two.  She didn’t know what the man wanted, but if he wanted to talk, she was making it as obvious as possible that this was a good time for it. 

Alert, but unconcerned, Valentina accepted the scone and cappuccino from the barista and casually began to read the paper as she snacked, certain that the Mai who were assigned to her safety and to follow the man who was following her were capable of doing their jobs. 

==-Nine Lives-==

The next night, Chloe, her mom, Joe and a few other Jackals attended a dinner party in honor of the Oracles' visit at Valentina’s penthouse apartment.  The Oracles were debating how long they would remain in San Francisco, with some difference of opinion between Jessica and her sister, who wanted to get home to South Africa before anything happened that was a danger to them. 

“If you did decide to stay, we have apartments that you could use for the duration. At no cost, of course.  And we would do any security upgrades that you saw fit,” Valentina offered as she sat down at the head of a long rectangular table, Jessica on her right and Chloe on her left. 

“That is very generous, but not necessary,” Jessica deferred. 

“Nonsense. You came at our behest, and offered your services to our cause which I hope has become your cause as well,” Valentina declared.

 “I really do appreciate you coming and I hope you will stay, at least awhile longer.  Your history is so different from the Mai, yet our origins are so similar,” Chloe said, joining the conversation.     

Meredith, sitting beside Chloe, smiled and nodded, but still looked freaked out by her conversation with the leader of the Oracles.  Upon first meeting Chloe's human mother, Jessica had looked at Meredith and smiled.  “Chloe was destined to be the Uniter, but who she is as a person is as much nurture as it is nature.  You have raised her to be strong and kind, two attributes that are evident to everyone she meets.” 

==-Nine Lives-==

A few days later, Amy was lying on Chloe’s bed, her head hanging off the end as Chloe folded laundry and the girls caught up. She might be the savior of ancient half god races, but she still had to do chores.  

“So you and Paul-“

“Yep,” Amy confirmed with a satisfied smile.

“Really?”

“Really, really,” Amy said with a smug smile.  “He was amazing, like I know that my dads said my first time was likely to be less than-“

“No, no, stop right there, I do not want details,” Chloe protested with her eyes closed tightly.

“But I was just-“

“No. No details. No innuendos, no hand gestures, no diagrams, no descriptive words, gestures, or anything else. None,” Chloe said quickly.

“But why?  If you and Alek ever manage to get down and dirty, I would absolutely want to hear about it,” Amy pouted.

Chloe turned away to hide her blush, pushing socks and underwear into a dresser drawer. “Because you’re both my friends, and I’ve known you both since we were kids, and seen both of you naked, and I do not want those images in my mind.  Please say you understand.”

Amy smiled.  “OK. I understand, and I will keep the details to a minimum.”

“No details, none.  Minimum implies some, I want none, zero, less than zero.  But I am totally and completely happy for you.”

“I know, I am too, it’s so great,” Amy said with a sigh.  “But enough about me, I noticed that blush, little miss I’m-going-to-save-the-world, you and Alek are hooking up!”

Chloe blushed again, this time her cheeks were a bright pink and she cringed, knowing that the Mai guards outside could hear Amy loud and clear.  “We've… kissed.  A few times.  It’s no big deal,” she tried to downplay the situation.

Amy rolled off the bed, heels over head, and miraculously landed on her feet. “Oh. My. God.  You two totally have not DTRed.”

Chloe laughed, but it was strained.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah you do. DTR. Define the Relationship.  Which you haven’t,” Amy said contemplatively. “That rat!” she exclaimed. “He’s totally stringing you along.” 

“It’s not like that, and you know it,” Chloe defended Alek.  She knew that any issues and insecurities in their relationship, whatever their relationship was, could be laid mostly at her feet.  “Alek… was pretty clear that he wanted us to… well… be together, before,” Chloe said haltingly, “but you know I was confused, and with Brian, and being a new Mai, and the Order… it all got messed up.”

Amy looked sympathetic.  “Is that why he ignored you the first week after you guys got back from your road trip? Still totally jealous about that, by the way.”

“We spent most of the time camping in the back of my car or sleeping in cheap hotels, before we found Joe’s camp. I don’t think you would have liked it.”

“You don’t know. I’m tougher than I look,” Amy argued. “But that’s beside the point.  You like Alek, I know he likes you, so you two just need to talk.  We can make that happen.”

“No, Amy. No plotting, no planning, no scheming.  Alek and I both need time to work this out on our own.  Do you hear me?”

Amy sank down to the bed, flopping back again with her arms above her head. “Yeah, I hear you.  But for the record, I think you’re wrong, and worse than that, you’re excluding me from all the fun.  No road trips, no skipping school, no harassing your wanna-be boyfriend.  My role as your best friend is being dramatically diminished.”

Chloe laughed.  “I’m sorry. Would an invite to a teen Mai get together make up for it?”

 “Maybe,” Amy said with an exaggerated pouty face. “But only if you let me plan it.”

“All yours, girlfriend, all yours.”

Amy sat up with a gleeful smile, bouncing lightly.  “Great, I’ll get started on making a list of must haves, while you tell me about each time you and Alek hooked up, and why he was doing that attractive, standoffish, British thing when you first got back.”

Amy was already madly making a list on her phone, thumbs flying as Chloe frowned.  “I don’t know. I think he was just trying to give us both space.”

“Space to what?  Food?  Pizza.  Korean.  Sushi.  Some veggie options…”

“It is a picnic, you know?  Outside? Not a four course meal.”

“Outside does not mean sandwiches and potato salad, Chloe.”

Chloe smiled.  “Yeah. OK.”

“Space,” Amy prodded, her eyes focused on the phone, an intense look of concentration on her face. 

“I think he just wanted to reset things.  It was tense between us before we left, and those first few days.  But then we were alone, and we had to depend on each other.  When we got back, I think… I don’t know what.”

“Then what changed his mind?”

Chloe shrugged and Amy rolled her eyes.  “OK, answer me this.  Do you two even talk?  Or is your time all Mai business or making out, no other conversation?”

Chloe laughed. “I wish.”

Amy grinned at her best friend. “I knew you couldn’t resist that debonair Londoner for long.”

“He’s Ukrainian actually. And so am I.”

“OMG! You two are not some kind of distant cousins are you?” Amy asked with wide eyes. “No! Don’t tell me. I don’t want you to ruin it for me.” 

==-Nine Lives-==

 The day of the party finally came around, and Chloe woke up feeling positive, though that might have more to do with waking up to Alek cuddling her than the party.  She smiled happily as she brushed her teeth, her hair still damp and a towel wrapped around her body.  Alek burst into the small bathroom, an apology on his lips even as he ducked into the claw foot bathtub and pulled the shower curtain partially closed.  “Sorry, I was on the phone and didn’t hear her,” he muttered quietly.  Chloe gaped at him, clutching at the towel to preserve her modesty.  She had just opened her mouth to ask him what was happening when it all became clear.

“Chloe?  Aren’t you ready yet?” Meredith called from very close by.

“Uh, no.  It’s still early,” Chloe said, motioning for Alek to turn around since he was very obviously looking at her.  He grinned and winked at her instead before covering his eyes with his hand. 

“Did you forget that I need you to drop me off downtown today?”  Meredith asked, sounding somewhere between resigned and exasperated. 

“Oh.”

Alek dropped his hand, quirked an eyebrow at her, while mouthing “might have been good to know.”

She glared at him, motioning for him to turn around again, but he shook his head, his mouth curved into a wide smile, and covered his eyes once more, clearly leaving space between his fingers to see her.  She huffed out a sigh and drew the bath curtain all the way just as her mother opened the door. 

“Mom!” Chloe yelled.  “A little privacy, please.”

“Sorry, I was just trying to help,” Meredith said holding up the clothes Chloe had laid out on her bed for the day.  “I am sorry, but I am also in a hurry. Can you be dressed and downstairs in ten?”

“Yes.  I promise. Now go.”

As soon as Meredith left Chloe’s room, closing the door behind her, Alek jumped out of the bathtub and kissed Chloe’s temple as he exited the bathroom heading towards the window.  “That towel covers more of you than your pajamas, but it’s cute that you feel nervous around me,” he teased her as he nimbly exited her room via a second story window.

==-Nine Lives-==

The teenagers' get together started well, and Chloe was glad in the end that she’d listened to Jasmine’s advice an only invited Mai and Amy and Paul.  She’d contented herself with the idea of having a more inclusive get-together later in the summer, hoping that a few months would be enough to allow peaceful coexistence. 

Held in Golden Gate Park in a secluded grove with Mai guards spread liberally around the perimeter, the teens were able to feel both free to be themselves and be protected.  Amy’s planning was flawless, with the food and music providing topics of conversation when the questions turned too pointed or too personal for Chloe’s liking, which they did with alarming regularity.

An hour into the party a girl from Lisbon, Portugal had approached Chloe and introduced herself.  The first five minutes of conversation went well, with Chloe learning more about the Portugal pride, but then the conversation took a much more personal and pointed direction.  "Is it true you've refused to have your DNA entered into the Mai database?" Naomi asked.  

Chloe visibly floundered.  "I... ah..."

"All Mai want to find their families.  Family is of the utmost importance to any Mai."

Chloe forced a smile, hearing the unspoken accusation that her not searching for her biological family made her less than Mai.  An aberration.  

Unaware or unconcerned about Chloe's discomfort, Naomi continued.  "You know, my pride accepted almost two dozen members of the Eastern European Pride, and you look a lot like one of them."

Chloe managed to respond calmly explaining that she had been advised by Mai elders that a search for her biological family would be conducted at a more opportune time. Naomi appeared unimpressed but changed the subject.  "What do you do for fun around here?  I thought California was supposed to be sunny."

Presently Chloe found herself in yet another awkward encounter.  “But what do you plan to do about the Lacerta,” Theo, a boy from the Alexandria pride (south of Washington DC) pressed Chloe.  “Our pride has had issues with them for years. Decades. And I just don’t think they can be reasoned with. You can’t use logic on an animal.”

Unsure of what to say that she hadn’t already said (she was there to bring peace and stereotypes and the refusal to let old issues go wouldn’t help), Chloe stared at Theo tensely. 

“Hey,” Amy interjected, reading Chloe’s body language easily. “Have you had any of the clam chowder yet?  It’s delish.” Theo looked at the Uniter’s awkward human friend with blatant annoyance. “It’s a local favorite. San Francisco, city by the bay,” Amy continued cheerfully, undaunted by the glare sent her way.

“I haven’t and it sounds great.  Theo? Do you want some?”

“No thanks, fish is not my favorite.”

“But aren’t you descended from a cat?” Amy asked blandly. Receiving a blank look from Theo she explained. “Cats love fish. It’s a thing.”

Chloe laughed. “Well this cat loves fish, so let’s go before I miss out.”  Walking away from Theo and leaving his bad vibes behind Chloe slung her arm around Amy. “You know I love you, right?”

“I do. I mean, who wouldn’t?” Amy replied with a smile. Waving a hand down her body she wrapped her arm around Chloe’s waist, ignoring the many gazes turned their way.  “All this and I plan an awesome party.  And let’s not forget, I also drive a mean getaway car.”

“That you do, that you do,” Chloe agreed. 

Kam joined them as they reached the table with the chowder.  “That sounds like a fun story.”

Chloe smiled at him, but quickly glanced around looking for Alek in the crowd.  Seeing him talking to a small group of Mai on the other side of the grove, she caught his eye and smiled softly.  He quirked an eyebrow at her in question and she shook her head, telling him she was fine. 

Returning her attention to Amy and Kam, she joined in the story, telling how she’d gotten Amy to take her to more than one questionable location including the time she decided to take on drug dealers.

Kam laughed, but glanced behind him to see Alek.  “Sounds fun, but frankly I’m surprised that Petrov let you run wild like that.”

Chloe stiffened and Amy made a face that indicated only badness was coming. “Alek is my friend, and my partner, and my protector, and I listen to his advice, but no one  _lets_   me do anything. I trust and rely on his advice, and Jasmine’s and Valentina’s, but I make my decisions as myself and the as the Uniter,” she said in a cool, firm tone.

 Kam nodded slowly.  “That’s good to hear.  But you should know, I’m not the only one questioning the influence the Eastern European Pride has over you.”

Chloe smiled, but it wasn’t friendly. “I was born in the Eastern European Pride.  Did you not realize that?  Or did you think you could guilt or manipulate me into distancing myself from my ancestral heritage?”

“What is that American phrase?  Putting one’s foot in one’s mouth?  I can’t seem to not put my foot in my mouth with you,” Kam said, bowing his head.

Amy smiled sweetly, but her gaze was sharp. “Maybe if you put a little effort into being less of an asshat, you might have some minimal success.”

Kam looked taken aback that a human, any human, would speak to him that way. 

“I don’t know what your problem is with Alek, and I honestly don’t care,” Chloe said flatly, suddenly done with playing nice with people who refused to offer her the same courtesy.

“Chloe,” Jasmine said, arriving with a nervous smile.  “Maybe we should-“

“No,” Chloe said clearly and loudly. “I think we should address this right now, and I want everyone to hear me.  I am the Uniter. I am.  I wasn’t happy about it at first, and I’ve only been a Mai for a few months, and maybe you all feel like I don’t understand your struggles, but I am Mai and I am the Uniter.  You’ve all lost friends, family members.  So have I.  The reason I was raised as a human is because the Order killed my parents.  They killed thousands of other Mai, decimated the Eastern European Pride, in an effort to stop me before I could start.  And I have to live with that,” she paused, her voice breaking.  “Every day, I live with that,” she said, her eyes meeting Alek’s.

Alek had moved closer, his dark gaze locked on Chloe, his posture radiating tension and promising violence to anyone who dared to upset her.

“I know who I am, and what my mission is. I want to learn about each of you, your lives and your prides.  But I will not subscribe to the old hate, the prejudice and the ignorance that has divided Mai from Mai and from every other race on the planet for the last thousand years.”

“We’re all young, still learning about the world.  If we can’t change or won’t change, then we are a hindrance to the Uniter’s mission,” Jasmine spoke clearly.  “You can be part of what we’re doing or you can leave and return to your home and explain how you failed to represent your pride to the Uniter.” 

“Kam here just mentioned that some Mai are worried about the influence the Eastern European Pride might have over me.  The only members of the Eastern European Pride that I have met are Alek and myself.  I’ll bet that you’re even more worried about humans' influence over me, since I still live with my human mother and live in the human world.  And I’d imagine that some of you don’t even want me to listen to Valentina’s advice and hate that I count Jackals among my friends,” Chloe said without an ounce of doubt in her tone or expression.

“But here is what you need to understand.  I became Mai four months ago just days before I was hunted and killed by a rogue Mai.  I was killed by a member of the Order not long after that- which marked my third death,” she said the words unemotionally.  “Alek, Jasmine, Valentina, her pride, Amy and Paul were here with me, protecting me and trying to help me get used to the idea that my life is not solely my own.  I get the impression that many of you think that the power I have is something to be coveted.  But I will be hunted for the rest of my life.  I will die again.  I will bear the weight of my success or failure as it affects thousands of others.  It is not a gift. It’s a burden.  And I am doing the best that I can.”

“So to echo what Jasmine said, this is your chance to get to know me and to decide if you want to work with me or not,” she said, looking each Mai present in the face. “That is your choice.  I will wish you well either way, but I will not stand here and listen to your insults and disrespect to the people who have supported me and sacrificed for me."

Alek took position by Chloe's side, facing down the assembled Mai teens austerely. "Bastet made us, and Bastet prophesied the coming of the Uniter," Alek said clearly, his crisp words carrying on the cool evening air.  "Chloe is as Bastet made her to be.  Chloe didn't transition to be Mai until her 16th birthday and then transitioning fully in less than a week.  Have any of you ever heard of something like that before?" Many heads shook, answering in the negative as their faces grew thoughtful and sympathetic. "Transitioning late meant she could remain hidden and safe in the human world for years.  That tells me that it was Bastet's plan all along.  Bastet intended for the Uniter to be raised by humans, to live a human life before realizing her Mai heritage.  If you question these aspects of who Chloe is, you question Bastet."

"Anyone who can be civil can remain, if you feel that is beyond you, you can leave with no hard feelings," Jasmine spoke again, her quiet confidence and serious gaze searching the gathered Mai, putting them on notice. "You were invited here with your families, but you are visitors here and should behave accordingly."  The implied threat that their invitation could be revoked at any time was enough to resonate even with the most stubborn Mai.  

==-Nine Lives-==

Chloe came home late, lips kiss swollen, a fact that Meredith valiantly ignored. “How was the party?”

“OK.”

“Just OK?” Meredith asked with concern.

Chloe slid onto a bar stool at the kitchen island across from where her mother was reviewing a set of architectural designs.  “Yeah. Just OK.  I don’t know if it’s a Mai thing or a me thing, but some of the things that have been said to me…” Chloe just shook her head.

Frowning, Meredith stood up straighter. “What kind of things?”

“Like how I don’t know how to be a Mai, or I don’t know enough to understand why the Mai hate humans or insert your choice of ancient race here, or how I shouldn’t be so close to Valentina or Alek, or Joe, or-“

“Me?” Meredith guessed.

Chloe looked down, picking at her fingernails to avoid her mother’s gaze. “Yeah.”

“Ignore them, Chloe.  Let them get to know you and let them get used to the ideas you’re putting forward.  Change is hard, Kiddo.  For everyone, and Mai seem especially strong willed from what I’ve seen,” Meredith said, earning a grin from her daughter.

“You really think they’ll come around?”

“I think you have to try, and if it doesn’t work at first-“

“Keep trying,” Chloe finished the common parenting refrain from her mother.  The same argument had been used to buck Chloe up when she’d been job hunting, learning geometry, and learning to drive.

==-Nine Lives-==

Wanting to check in on Chloe before heading to bed that night, Meredith knocked briefly on the door then pushed it open without waiting.  Chloe often wrote in her journal before bed, and after a hard night of Mai and teen politics, Meredith had no doubt that Chloe was pouring her frustration out in ink. 

But instead of finding Chloe bent over the leather journal she cherished, music blasting from ear buds, she found her daughter straddling Alek’s lap, their lips locked together.  Their position was intimate, but Alek’s hands were resting on Chloe’s hips and both were fully clothed so Meredith forced herself to breath and react calmly.

“Well,” she said watching in amusement as Chloe and Alek sprang apart, Chloe ending up on her knees on the floor, Alek crouched protectively in front of her before he relaxed.  “I guess it’s time we had a talk.”

“Hello, Mrs. King,” Alek greeted her calmly, sitting down on the bed and facing her.

“Alek.  I heard the party tonight was a bit…rough.”

He nodded, but smiled, his dark gaze landing on Chloe’s flushed cheeks.  “It could have gone better, but Chloe left them in no uncertainty about how it would be in the future, so I’d say it was a good night all around.”

“Good,” Meredith replied, pulling the desk chair over so she could sit and face the two teens.  “Have a seat, Chloe.”

Chloe looked like she would rather run, but Alek took her hand and tugged her down.  Meredith didn’t miss how he squeezed it before releasing her, and that Chloe had opted to sit close enough to Alek that their shoulders and legs were touching.

“I understand that you two are important to each other and that Alek is a vital part of your mission, but if you two are becoming more than friends, I expect you both to be mature and upfront with me about your progressing relationship.” 

Chloe relaxed visibly, and smiled tiredly. “Thanks, Mom."

“I’m not finished.  I also know that you are young adults and need to be free to explore your boundaries.” 

Chloe looked horrified, Alek however appeared as unruffled as ever. 

“I expect you, Alek, to respect my daughter…”

“I do.”

“…and you, Chloe to respect my rules and my household. And I expect both of you to be smart.”

Chloe nodded and Meredith told herself that it was enough for tonight. 

==-Nine Lives-==

Words 4960

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New post on this site, cross posted with FF.net, where I have had a long hiatus. Sorry for that, this story was front and center in my mind when I wrote the first seven chapters, but then moved to the back of the line. I haven't really written anything in about 6 months and decided to finish off at least one of my WIPs and this is it. I have the whole end of the story laid out, with Chapter 10 mostly written now. I think it will likely be 12 chapters in total, but I'm a terrible estimator about that type of thing. I hope anyone following this story enjoys it, and leave feedback if you want to motivate me to write faster.


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